? :,- , 




LIBRARY OP CONGRESS. 



Chap. ... Copyright No. 

Shell..iv„„ 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



PRAYER-MEETING 
METHODS 



HOW TO PREPARE FOR AND CONDUCT 

CHRISTIAN ENDEA VOR PR A YER MEETINGS 

AND SIMITAR GATHERINGS- 



AMOS R. WELLS 
It 

MANAGING EDITOR OF " THE GOLDEN RULE," AND AUTHOR OF 

"SOCIAL EVENINGS," " THE JUNIOR MANUAL," 

"WAYS OF WORKING SERIES," 

" FOREMAN JENNIE," 

ETC. 




BOSTON AND CHICAGO 

UNITED SOCIETY OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR 

1806 



\ 



v« 






Copyright, 1896, 

4 BY THE 

United Society of Christian Endeavor. 



All rights reserved. 



The Library 

OF CoNOHRiS 



C. J. PETERS & son, typographers, 

BOSTON. 



F 5 - 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER ., PACK 

I. Taking Part in the Meeting 5 

• II. ^The General' Work of the Committee . 20 

III. The Committee and the Society .... 39 

IV} The Committee and the Church .... 46 

V. At Home v 53 

VI. The Leader 62 

VII. Prayer in the Meetings $3 

VIII. Using the Bible 92 

IX. Emphasize the Pledge 100 

X. The Music 107 

XI. Points for Good Meetings 114 

XII. Special Meetings 130 

XIII. The Topic Cards 159 

XIV. Some Closing Suggestions 167 



PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 



CHAPTER I. 

TAKING PART IN THE MEETING. 

Have you ever heard any one say, " I cannot ex- 
press myself 1 '? That is true only of an idiot or a 
paralytic. Not express yourself ? Why, if you were 
born dumb, still eyes can speak lovingly, and helpful 
hands can pronounce beautiful orations. If you are 
blind and deaf, yet you can point to heaven. If you 
are helpless and motionless, still they preach noble 
sermons who only stand and wait. 

Self Always Expresses Itself. 

But those who say, " I cannot express myself," 
do not usually mean that they cannot express them- 
selves at all. They mean that they cannot express 
themselves fully, but only stammeringly and inade- 
quately. 

But this also is untrue. Self always expresses it- 
self. If you think you cannot express all of yourself, 
then you are mistaken in one of two ways. Either 
you are already expressing more of yourself than you 
5 



6 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

know, or you may think you have a larger self to 
express than you really have. 

Be assured that you cannot hide spiritual heat and 
spiritual light, any more than you can hide physical 
heat and physical light. If the love of mankind, if 
the spirit of prayer and of praise, could lurk unob- 
served in the human heart, then I could believe in 
an expressionless heaven, where harpstrings vibrate 
without sound, and the glory of God shines without 
giving light. 

But no. The stammering soul speaks stammer- 
ingly, however glib the tongue. The steadfast spirit 
talks steadfastly, in spite, often, of faltering speech. 
It would be sad indeed if this were not true. 

The Value of Words. 

Suppose, however, we merely say, " I cannot ex- 
press myself in words." What then? Well, this 
too is false ; and to prove that it is false is my pres- 
ent purpose. I shall try, first, to show the value of 
verbal expression ; and second, to show how we can 
win this power. 

In the first place, then, why is it that Paul says 
that " with the mouth confession is made unto salva- 
tion"? Are not the issues of life out of the heart? 
Why is it that Christians always insist on verbal ex- 
pression of religious feeling? I will mention eight 
reasons. 

Earnestness Means Expression. 

First, because, when we are in earnest about any- 
thing else, speech is so common and ready. Young 



TAKING PART IN THE MEETING. J 

people proclaim zealously, " I want to go to that 
party " ; " I love ice cream " ; " John is helping me 
level the tennis-court." Why should they stammer 
and break down when they say, 44 I want to go to 
heaven " ; " I love the Saviour " ; " Christ is helping 
me live a manly life "? The sceptic will have it that 
this hesitancy argues more love for ice cream than 
for Christ. 

No Mistake About It. 

In the second place, verbal expression is valuable 
because it is so unmistakable. " What !" you cry, 
44 are there none whose professions are only loud- 
voiced shams? " Yes ; but whom do these deceive ? 
Can you not detect their insincerity almost with the 
first word ? 

It is much easier to be deceived by looks than by 
speech. Yonder pretty girl, with serious eyes reli- 
giously downcast, may be thinking only of her rib- 
bons. Let me see her eye light up as she speaks of 
Christ. Yonder manly boy may be so regular an at- 
tendant at church because of godly parents, or even 
because of the pretty girl. Let me hear his strong 
young voice lifted in prayer, and I can soon tell you. 

44 He has gone back on his — act. 1 ' Did you ever 
hear that? No. " She has gone back on her — 
face." Did you ever hear that? No. Why is it 
that we always say, 44 He has gone back on his — 
word," if there is not something about words that is 
more trustworthy than other modes of expression ? 
Do you wonder that they are expected of Christians? 



8 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

Too Selfish to Speak. 

The third reason why so much stress is laid upon 
vocal Christianity is because a lack of it implies self- 
ishness. " I cannot express myself 11 means often, 
" I am too selfish to express myself. 1 ' We hesitate 
to speak of Christ's glory, because we fear that we 
can get no glory by our speech. We do not lose 
ourselves and all thought of ourselves in thought of 
our theme. 

O, of course, selfishness can produce clamor. It 
can make of us noisy word-mongers, eager to cry out 
anything that will draw men's attention to us. But 
from your personal experience tell me : has not self- 
ishness been at the bottom of your ignoble silence 
more often than of your ignoble speech ? 

The Contagion of Dumbness. 

In the fourth place, we object to silent Christians 
because failure in one mode of expression hinders 
success in all ; vigor in one mode of expression pro- 
motes success in all. When your chat with your 
friend is the gayest, are not your smiles the warm- 
est? When your words have been most fervently 
spoken for the dear Master, is not your life most 
fervently lived for him ? 

Our only safety, friends, is to be ready for obedi- 
ence to the Holy Spirit in all modes of expression, 
so that whether he bid us walk or talk, laugh or 
weep, work or rest, it is all one blessedness to us. 
We dare not risk sloth in the tongue, lest it spread 
to the fingers and feet, the brain and the heart. 



TAKING PART IN THE MEETING. 9 

A Lofty Faculty. 

The fifth reason is because we all feel- that expres- 
sion is one of the very best things in man, and we 
feel that religion should put man at his best. Milton 
said, in effect, " If you would write an epic, your life 
must be an epic " ; but I would add that you cannot 
live an epic without in some way expressing an epic 
that all may read or hear. 

So thought Gray when he wrote about "a mute, 
inglorious Milton." A mute Milton would indeed be 
inglorious, a living treason to his Creator. Equally 
treasonable would be a mute, inglorious Christian. 

Words Fix Ideas. 

In the sixth place, nothing so assures us of spirit- 
ual things and fixes them for us, as giving them out- 
ward embodiment. A man learns the full charms of 
his beloved one by recounting them to his mother. 
He discovers the dear beauty of his mother's life in 
telling his friend about her. He perceives most 
clearly God's love for him when he tries to tell it to 
others. He is weak in duty-doing until he has 
acknowledged that duty before his fellows. The 
truth he knows seems only half true until he knows 
that somebody else knows it. He knows that prayer 
is answered, but how much more he knows it when 
he hears you say that prayer is answered! 

You are a stronger Christian than I am, if your 
belief does not go stumbling without the arm of 
another's belief; and you are a stronger Christian 
than I am, if you dare feel a thing to be right and 



IO PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

true and required of you without instantly binding 
your belief to life by spoken profession of it. 

The Magnifying Power of Speech. 

And not only does expression fix what we have, 
but, in the seventh place, it adds to what we have. 
Christ's parable -servant simply expressed his pound, 
and it grew to ten cities. The foolish servant simply 
said that he could not express his pound, and from 
him was taken away what he had. Honest words 
spring up as life — a larger life than the words call 
for. And this larger life drops down words — still 
greater w r ords than the life calls for. And so the 
blessed circles widen. 

I want to say very earnestly that we are indeed 
clumsy and thriftless about our living if w r e neglect 
this powerful aid to growth. Let it not trouble us if 
our life lags behind our words, so long as it is strug- 
gling to catch up with them. Let it not trouble us, 
either, if our words lag behind our life, so long as 
they are struggling to catch up with it. A growing 
soul grows by the very fact of this interchange of 
goals, expression now leaping ahead of reality, real- 
ity now leaping ahead of expression, neither content 
ignobly with its present place. And so expression is 
expected of a growing Christian. 

Missionary Tongues. 
The eighth point and the last is this : speech is 
missionary pow r er. With the mouth confession is 
made not only to our own salvation, but to the saving 



TAKING PART IN THE MEETING. II 

of others. The mere physical effort means some- 
thing, the mere contraction of such muscles and 
vibration of so many tons of air, were that all there 
is of it. But when I am made to feel, as in all sin- 
cere speech I am made to feel, that over the flying 
bridge of your words your own true soul is speeding 
to me, it moves me as nothing else can. 

This flutter of thin air against a stretched mem- 
brane backed by a chain of bones and a thimbleful 
of liquid, — what a trivial affair it is to make such 
bother over ; and yet it is by just this foolishness of 
preaching, of your trembling words and mine, that 
the kingdom of God is to come. It is not ours to 
tell why there is pow T er in it. It is ours to recognize 
the fact that the Father has placed great power there, 
and humbly to take up the tool he hands us. 

And now I have given my eight reasons for set- 
ting such high value on expression in religious life. 
Let me repeat them. Ready speech is common in 
all other earnest work, and so should not be absent 
from Christianity. Speech furnishes a quite unmis- 
takable mode of expression of our faith. A lack of it 
implies that self is too much with us, that we are not 
fully God's and man's. A failure here means, by 
the sad contagion of weakness, comparative failure 
in all other modes of expression. Speech is one of 
the loftiest of human powers, and should attend the 
loftiest human experience. Words fix for us the 
spiritual truth we feel. Words enlarge life, to be in 
turn enlarged by life. Speech is God's chosen mis- 
sionary power. There are enough good reasons. 



12 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

surely, to stir any of us Christians from unchristian 
silence. 

And now for the last topic of this chapter. If the 
activity of the tongue is so valuable, how may we get 
it? I have precisely ten rules, which I wish briefly 
to give you. 

The Longing for Power. 

First rule for obtaining freedom of expression : 
want it. I am sometimes tempted to be very impo- 
lite when I hear people say, " How I wish I could 
speak or pray in prayer meeting ! " 

" Wish ! " I want to exclaim. " Why, you have 
n't even the desire of a wish ! By their fruits ye 
shall know them, — wishes, as well as everything 
else. Do men gather dumbness from longing, or 
sluggishness from desire? One hearty wish would 
at least bud into one timid little word." 

Let us not cheat ourselves. A desire for the abil- 
ity of expression means vastly more than envy of 
some one who has it, or uneasy sense that we are 
not doing our duty. It means that earnest asking 
for a thing with the prayer of our whole being, which 
Christ said always finds what it seeks. We can 
never get power of expression until we thus want it. 

Nothing for Nothing. 

Second rule : work for it. Zeal is the mother of. 
expression, but observation is its father. Study those 
that have this power, to imitate, not their manner, 
but their method of obtaining their manner. Ask 
them how they overcame your difficulties. Read 



TAKING PART IN THE MEETING. 1 3 

widely, especially in the best expressed of all books, 
the Bible. Think seriously, not scorning the 
thoughts God gives you. Write constantly ; nothing 
better drills the tongue than the pen. Talk in pri- 
vate on the themes which will be your public topics. 
Ask advice, read, think, write, converse ; in all 
these ways you must work, if you truly want the 
power of expression. 

The Week Before. 

Third rule: make preparation. Not merely the 
general preparation I have outlined, but special prep- 
aration for each occasion. ' k Why, 1 ' some one 
objects, " did n't Christ say, ' It shall be given you 
in that same hour what you shall speak'?" Yes, 
but whom was Christ then addressing? His chosen 
disciples, men who had left all to follow him, men 
whose every moment was engaged in the most active 
and effective preparation for public speech. 

And that is the only kind of special preparation I 
would advise you to make. Fill yourselves full of 
the subject. They spent their lives in that task ; do 
you spend half an hour daily? If you wish to take 
part in the next prayer meeting, during that daily 
half hour for a week think over the subject ; read 
about it, in the Bible especially ; write on it ; pray 
over it. At the end of the week you will have too 
much to say. 

Have you ever seen a flower open? A few min- 
utes ago it was hidden modestly in its green wrap- 
pings, and now it startles us by its splendid beauty. 



14 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

Surely God gave it in that hour what it should speak. 
Surely there was no rehearsing of that opening. No ; 
but what a life of preparation, from the flower to the 
bud, back to the stem, the two little tentative leaves, 
the seed, the rootlets, the soil, the sun, the rain, the 
geologic aeons ! A Christian should indeed speak 
ex tempo?'e, out of time, out of such a whole lifetime 
of preparation. 

Step by Step. 

Fourth rule: be content with small beginnings. 
That is, be content with that wherewith God is con- 
tented ; only, he has made you so near the angels 
that it is impossible for you to begin anything with 
as small beginnings as he himself has had to make in 
his work of creation. 

The parable of parables for the young Christian is 
that of the mustard seed. He must be content to 
sow the shortest of all prayers, the briefest of all sen- 
tences, the most stammering and awkward expres- 
sions, and if he have faith as a grain of mustard 
seed, his words will take root in good and honest 
hearts, and when they are grown they will be strong 
trees. 

A Noble Ambition. 

But I must immediately set off against this rule my 
fifth : never be content with less than the best possi- 
ble at the time. That will prevent your being con- 
tent with small continuations of small beginnings. 

Best runs, while Second-best stands still. We 
have so few strong Christians, because we have so 
few weak Christians that are willing to be as strong 



TAKING PART IN THE MEETING. 1 5 

as they can be. Being perfect as our Father in 
heaven is perfect, — why, that means nothing more 
than doing our best every time. Take care of your 
best, and growth will take care of itself. 

A Cure for Stage Fright. 

Sixth rule : come to understand your physical in- 
significance and your spiritual significance. When 
I find myself in danger of stage fright, weak knees, 
shaky hands, chattering teeth, ideas chaotic, I start 
my mind off on a trip around this great earth, stretch- 
ing so far in its vast, rounded bulk that all the 
swarming millions of men could be packed into a 
little, unnoticed corner of its surface. My nerves 
begin to steady a little. 

Then I set off on a voyage to the sun. I try to 
fancy myself walking swiftly day and night for long 
thousands of years before I reach it, and as I gaze 
back over the unimagined distance, the whole world 
with its speck of humanity looks too small to be 
afraid of. 

Once more I start, this time not on foot or with 
the wings of the wind, but with the wings of light, — 
light which can girdle this great earth more than 
seven times while your watch ticks once. At that 
speed I fly for three years until I reach the nearest 
star, and then look back. 

I have gone far enough. All my fear of my fel- 
lows is lost in a sense of their insignificance and my 
own. Now, I would as soon be afraid to address a 
thousand ants, as a thousand men. And as I hasten 



1 6 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

back from my fancied journey, I need now to spur 
myself to expression by reminding myself how ex- 
pression is worth while ; for indeed all things human 
are in danger of seeming too trivial, swallowed up in 
the thought of the greatness of God. I must remem- 
ber how we little men are made in the image of the 
mighty Father, how sadly we have stained that noble 
image, how the Father himself came down into our 
pettiness, and dignified it forever. My bashfulness 
is all gone now, and awe and zeal have taken its 
place. 

Put Self Behind You. 

This, too, has led me to my seventh rule for gain- 
ing expression, which is : become unselfish. Do not 
stop with dwarfing self by thoughts of your physical 
insignificance, or with exalting self by thought of 
your spiritual significance, but go on to the forget- 
ting of self's littleness or greatness in remembrance 
of your brother's need. 

Do you know that there is nothing which so hin- 
ders expression as the comparative degree? Am I 
speaking worse, or better, than some one else ? Am 
I doing more or less excellently than the occasion 
demands? The comparative degree stamps with 
comparative failure everything that it touches. No 
person ever expressed himself well while he was 
thinking about expressing himself well, or about 
another's expressing himself well. 

I do not know what professors of elocution and I 
oratory would say, but I think that all helpful expres- 
sion is conditioned on self-forgetfulness. 



TAKING PART IN THE MEETING. 1 7 



Expect ! Expect ! 

My eighth rule is : speak in the attitude of expecta- 
tion. Expect to win people's attention, and you will 
win it. Expect to touch men's hearts, and you will 
move them. Expect to stir them to action; your 
words will reap a harvest in no other way. 

Too much of our talk is in what a blundering scholar 
of mine, stumbling pardonably among Greek roots, 
once called the past-present tense. Much more of 
our talk should be in the future-present tense, should 
look with present, vivid confidence to definite out- 
comes. Expression of what has been is easy and 
natural for the old, and the young sometimes think 
it their duty to imitate them. But the natural atti- 
tude for youthful expression is the forward-looking 
one, which anticipates. 

Act Out Your Speech. 

Ninth rule : remember that, as I have hinted, the 
best seed of a word is a deed, just as the best seed 
of a deed is a word. If you want to learn to talk 
eloquently on the advantages of church membership, 
try to get some one to join the church. If you want 
to speak beautifully on the uses of sorrow, try to 
comfort some one who is mourning. If you want 
to become strong in combating scepticism and in 
expressing faith, try to strengthen some particular 
doubting Thomas. To every form and subject of 
expression there are appropriate deeds, which will 
create it wise and beautiful. 



1 8 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 



Our Example and Power. 

Tenth rule, and last : let Christ be your example 
of expression, and the Holy Spirit your power. No 
man ever spoke as Christ did, but we may reflect 
his image, growing from glory to glory in our words 
as well as in our faces and our lives. 

I think I see in those that are the closest students 
of the blessed Book, a constant approach to Christ's 
directness and divine simplicity, to his skill of dra- 
matic portrayal, and the power of his language over 
the heart. With Christ as our example, we shall 
speak, not to please men, not with cunning crafti- 
ness, but as the Father directs who dwells within us. 
Let me tell you a parable. 

In a Figure. 

A marble block lay roughly hewn out from the 
quarry. The Poet passed by and said, " Statue, 
goddess, form of beauty hidden in this marble, — I 
can see your lovely curves, I can see your glorious 
smile, though no one else perceives you." 

And as he passed, the block was filled with de- 
light and satisfaction. *' I have no need, then," it 
thought, "of the torture of hammer and chisel. 
Inner being is enough, without outward seeming." 

But the next day the Moralist came near, and see- 
ing the marble block he said, " Alas, here is this 
marble, pure for a statue of Mary, strong for a statue 
of Paul, yet all ugly and misshapen ! How futile is 
inner reality without outward form ! " 



TAKING PART IN THE MEETING. 19 

Then, as he went on his way, the block fell into 
great unrest. " Come, rain and sun," it cried, " and 
wear away the imprisoning crust. Come, wind, and 
dash it off, and show the world my hidden beauty ! " 

Then the sun and rain came, and weathered the 
marble in great, unsightly holes. Then the wind 
came and tossed it about, cleaving off great slabs 
here and there. The block was uglier than before, 
so that the quarrymen passed it now with a shrug of 
their shoulders. 

But one day the Artist visited the quarry, seeking 
a block for his statue. " Take me, O take me," 
moaned our battered marble. " Do with me what 
you will ; torture me with hammer and graver ; for 
you alone can free my beauty from its ugly shell." 

And the artist did choose it, and after many sor- 
rows and long toil it shone one of the worlds most 
marvelous statues. 

Would that thus we too, crude human souls seek- 
ing the expression of the divine within us, learning 
of a surety that outer seeming must attend inner be- 
ing, may learn also to disavow the elements of this 
world, and trust for the expression of ourselves to 
the great Artist alone. 

O Lord, open thou our lips, and our mouths shall 
show forth thy praise. 



20 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE GENERAL WORK OF THE COMMITTEE. 

Organize Your Committees. — It is not enough for 
the prayer-meeting committee to have a chairman ; it 
is also well for it to appoint a vice-chairman, to assist 
the chairman, and take charge of the committee if 
the chairman is necessarily absent. The committee 
should also have a secretary, who should keep the 
minutes of the committee meetings, and, possibly, 
prepare the report, though the report should always 
be submitted to the other members of the committee 
for suggestions, and the chairman of the committee 
may probably consider it his own privilege to write 
it. The committee meeting should be carried on 
after the manner of the business meeting of the 
society. 

A Committeeman to a Meeting. — Though of 
course the chairman of the prayer-meeting commit- 
tee has general charge of all the prayer meetings, 
yet it is productive of good results to assign each 
meeting to the special oversight of one of the com- 
mittee. The committeeman in charge for the night 
should help the leader by talking over the topic with 
him, lending him a Christian Endeavor paper and 
other helps, assisting him to find suitable hymns, 
and suggesting methods of leading. If for any rea- 



GENERAL WORK OF THE COMMITTEE. 21 

son the leader fails to appear, the prayer-meeting 
helper for that night should be prepared to lead, and 
should take the chair immediately. 

The Verse-Readers Class. — That is indeed a 
happy society that contains no verse-reader's class, or 
no class of those that I must consider quite as bad, 
if not worse, — the members that always take part 
in the meeting by reading brief quotations from well- 
known writers, making no comment upon them 
whatever, nor saying in any way that the quotations 
represent their personal experiences, or are presented 
as their testimonies. 

One way to break up this habit of reading Bible 
verses or quotations from secular writers, and taking 
part in no other way, is to talk frankly to the mem- 
bers about the weakness of the practice. You must 
recognize the fact that often, very often indeed, there 
is no better way to take part than by repeating 
Bible verses ; but this is not true when those who 
take part in that way do it on account of sloth, or 
baseless timidity, or carelessness. 

When an Endeavorer repeats a Bible verse because 
of his love for that passage, because he is filled with 
gratitude for the comfort and strength it has brought 
into his life, because he wants others to share with 
him in this joy, and says something of all this, though 
only in a trembling sentence, — that is one thing ; 
but when an Endeavorer repeats a Bible verse, or 
reads it from a hastily written slip of paper, hurrying 
over the words, and mumbling them so that they 
can scarcely be distinguished, his whole thought evi- 



22 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

dently to fulfill the letter of the pledge without caring 
for the spirit of it, — that is quite another thing. 
Often a frank talk along these lines, especially if it 
come from one of your most earnest members, or 
from the pastor, and if it be followed by a straight- 
forward call for promises to forsake the habit, and 
add at least a brief comment to the verse that is 
quoted, will produce the very best of results, and 
win nearly the whole of the society from the verse- 
reader's class. 

The first step will usually be to get the members 
to commit to memory the verses they make their 
testimony. Let this become the rule in your society. 
Appoint one of the prayer-meeting committee to 
observe the infractions of this rule, and to report the 
number of them at each society meeting, praising 
the society for whatever progress they may make in 
this line. Next get these verse-readers (or verse- 
repeaters, as they will become) to add just one sen- 
tence to the verse; such as, "I have come during 
the past week to see helpfulness in this verse "; or, 
" These words of Christ have become very precious 
to me"; or, "I want to take for my testimony this 
sentence from Paul.*" 

The use of sentence prayers, and the frequent 
urging of all the members to take part in these chain 
prayers, will do much to draw Endeavorers from the 
verse-reading class. Personal work is needed here. 
Often you can get three or four of the timid members 
to promise to take part in sentence prayers, if all the 
others will do so. Sometimes the members of the 



GENERAL WORK OF THE COMMITTEE. 2J 

prayer-meeting committee may pair themselves off 
with the timid members, each asking one of them to 
add one sentence to the prayer the committee mem- 
ber himself will offer when a chain prayer is called for. 

It will be hard to win the Endeavorers from the 
verse-readers 1 class unless the better workers in the 
society themselves occasionally take part by merely 
repeating Bible verses, adding to them a very brief 
testimony. This will show the beginners in the 
work how to do it. Sometimes, too, it is a wise 
step to have a meeting that may be called a " Bible 
verse meeting," during which all will participate 
merely by repeating Bible verses bearing on the 
topic, adding sentence commentaries, or commen- 
taries rigidly confined to two or three sentences. In 
the same way, quotation meetings may be held, the 
members being permitted to take part only by re- 
peating from memory quotations from standard 
Christian writers regarding the topic of the evening, 
adding in each case a sentence or two of their own. 

How to Obtain Promptness. — I have summarized 
in the following sentences some of the reasons for 
tardiness in attendance on Christian Endeavor meet- 
ings. If your society lacks promptness, it might 
be a good plan to have these reasons printed on a 
little dodger which could be distributed among the 
members : — 

WHY YOU WERE LATE. 

Because you did not plan to be early. 

Because you did not notice other Endeavorers going 
to the meeting. 



24 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

Because you do not own a consecrated watch. 

Because you care more for your own ease than God's 
cause. 

Because others are late and you are willing to train with 
them. 

Because you have never thought about it. 

Because the nice adjustment of your clothes is more on 
your mind than the success of the meeting. 

Because you put off preparation till the last minute. 

Because tardiness has become a habit with you. 

Because you do not realize the power of example. 

Because promptness is not expressly mentioned in the 
pledge, and you are a letter-Christian, not a spirit- 
Christian. 

Because you have forgotten how you felt when you 
were leader, and your opening exercises were spoiled by 
late-comers. 

Because you are a passive member, and not an active 
one. 

" Take my feet, and let them be 
Consecrated, Lord, to thee." 

One of the best ways of curing this lack of prompt- 
ness is to begin the meeting always on time. Let 
the prayer-meeting committee begin it themselves, if 
no leader is present, and even though a very few of 
the members are there. It is not best always to 
open with the singing of five or six hymns. These 
introductory song services are very pleasant, but if 
the society is inclined to dilatoriness, the opening 
song service will encourage it. The members do 
not feel that they are late if they arrive while it is in 



GENERAL WORK OF THE COMMITTEE. 25 

progress. Sometimes hold no song service at the 
opening, but begin with a service of prayer, or let 
the leader at once give his introduction. 

One cure for this habit of procrastination is for the 
ushers to permit the first comers to take the back 
seats, thus forcing the late arrivals to march to the 
front. This disturbs the meeting, but may be madvi 
a gain in the end. 

One society found it very effective to hang out in 
the front of the room, as soon as the exercises be- 
gan, a large placard with the announcement, in bold 
type: " YOU ARE LATE!" 

It is a good plan for the prayer-meeting committee 
to make a record, on consecutive Sundays, of the 
number that are late. Such a report, made at each 
meeting with suitable comments, is likely to bring 
about a gain in promptness. 

In extreme cases, a report might be made to each 
member at the end of a month, stating how many 
times that member had been present on time, and 
how many times he had been late. 

It needs to be said, also, that a prompt closing is 
as necessary as a prompt arrival. Indeed, a busi- 
ness-like, brisk way of conducting the meeting 
throughout will soon instill business-like habits in 
the members. 

To Get Brevity. — There are those who hold that 
nothing worth saying can be said in a speech that is 
shorter than five or ten minutes. I suppose those 
who accept this dictum would sneer at a local union 
I once heard of which held a testimony service last- 



2 6 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

ing about thirty minutes, in which, by actual count, 
one hundred and twenty-eight took part. I have no 
doubt that each one of those one hundred and 
twenty-eight said something that was worth saying 
and worth hearing. Critics call this a kind of 
" sacred game, 1 ' but they might well be asked how 
long it took the publican to say, " God, be merciful 
to me, a sinner ! " 

No point in the new-fashioned prayer meeting 
which the Christian Endeavor movement is likely to 
establish is to be counted more valuable and impor- 
tant than the large number of persons that partici- 
pate in each meeting, this large number being made 
possible by the conciseness of those who take part. 
In the pointed, straightforward testimonies common 
in our Christian Endeavor meetings quite as much 
is said as would, under other circumstances, be ex^ 
tended to occupy ten or fifteen minutes ; and those 
sharp arrows go straight home to the consciences 
and lives of the hearers. 

Occasionally, however, in all societies, the long- 
winded speaker crops out, and it is frequently neces- 
sary to insist upon brevity in the meeting. Let the 
president or the pastor speak plainly, take the num- 
ber of members in the society, and the number of 
minutes in the time of meeting, and by simple divis- 
ion show each member how much time he can 
fairly claim, unless he considers that his thought is 
far more valuable than the thought of the others 
around him, — so valuable that he feels warranted 
in expressing it at length, though by so doing he 



GENERAL WORK OF THE COMMITTEE. 27 

makes it impossible for five or six others to speak 
at all. 

Remind the members that other meetings are com- 
ing ; that it is not necessary to say in one meeting 
all one feels or thinks or has experienced. Speak 
boldly to individual offenders in this regard ; boldly, 
but lovingly, and in the spirit of Christ. 

At the executive committee meeting discuss the 
matter, and instill a sentiment opposed to long- 
windedness. Get the better workers, those whose 
speech is most fluent, to set an example of brevity. 
Publicly commend the testimonies that are most 
brief and pointed, by repeating what they say, with 
a word of hearty approval. And, especially, show 
the members that brevity can be obtained only by 
careful preparation. The less one has thought about 
the subject, the more likely he is to talk at great 
length upon it. 

The Preparatory Meeting. — It would be impos- 
sible for a prayer-meeting committee to devise a 
better method of deepening the spiritual interest 
in the meeting than that which has come, I am glad 
to say, into quite common usage, — the holding 
of a ten-minute prayer service preceding the Chris- 
tian Endeavor meeting. This service is held by 
the prayer-meeting committee and the leader of 
the evening. Occasionally there may be added a 
few visitors especially invited for definite reasons. 

During these few minutes of earnest petition for 
God's presence and power, the prayer-meeting com- 
mittee will do its most efficient work. 



25 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

A Preparation Class. — The preparation class is 
for the use of members that find it exceedingly diffi- 
cult to take part in the Christian Endeavor prayer- 
meeting, either because of timidity, or because they 
do not know how to find thoughts upon the topic. 
This class should be led by one who is wise enough 
not to do the thinking of the members, but to teach 
them to think for themselves ; to teach them how, by 
meditation and Bible-study, to discover God's truth. 

In this preparatory meeting few will be gathered, 
and therefore those few will be less timid in express- 
ing their thoughts. The topic of the evening will be 
discussed informally and will be prayed over, and 
the members that take part in this preparatory ser- 
vice will go into the larger meeting ready to contrib- 
ute some original thought that will be helpful. If 
such a preparatory class were held no oftener than 
once a month, it would be of great advantage. 

Workers' Training Classes. — The prayer-meet- 
ing committee might organize a training class for 
drill in methods of prayer-meeting work. The spirit 
of such a class should be one of great seriousness, 
and much prayer should be offered over the labors 
of the meeting. A wise and experienced worker 
should conduct the class, and all the prayer-meet- 
ing leaders, appointed beforehand for a number of 
months, should be gathered together for study and 
consultation. 

Methods of leading as well as methods of partici- 
pation will be discussed. Different kinds of prayer 
meetings and their fitness in connection with the 



GENERAL WORK OF THE COMMITTEE. 29 

different topics of the coming weeks, different ways 
of obtaining thoughts upon the subject, the use of 
quotations, the use of the Bible to illustrate the 
topic, the telling of experience, personal testimony, 
the use of the hymn-book, how to open the meeting, 
how to close the meeting, —these are samples of the 
topics such a training class might study. 

A Prayer-meeting Scrap-book. — The most ser- 
viceable scrap-book for the use of the prayer-meeting 
committee will consist of a series of envelopes of 
uniform size, labeled appropriately to the clippings 
they are to contain. One should hold comments on 
the topic taken from Christian Endeavor and de- 
nominational papers. These will be especially valu- 
able in following years, as similar topics come up. 
Others should contain methods of work, one enve- 
lope holding practical hints for leaders ; another, 
suggestions regarding singing ; another, points on 
the use of the Bible in Christian Endeavor meet- 
ings, etc. 

Quotations from standard writers, poems suitable 
for use in prayer meetings, and the like, should 
also be divided among envelopes appropriately la- 
beled. One, for instance, will contain the quota- 
tions on heaven, another those on truth, others 
those on peace, happiness, praise, promise, faith, 
etc. These envelopes should be kept in a box just 
fitted to them, and should be arranged in alphabeti- 
cal order. 

A Prayer-meeting Note-book. — The prayer-meet- 
ing committee should keep themselves, and should 



30 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

urge all the members to keep, prayer-meeting note- 
books. It would be money well expended if the 
society were to present to each member some such 
book. In the books should be spaces for each Sun- 
day in the year. At the head of each space should 
be written the topic for one Sunday. 

In these books the Endeavorers will write what- 
ever thoughts on the topics of coming weeks may 
come to them while they are about their business or 
their play, quotations from helpful poems, and illus- 
trations taken from their reading or observation. If 
each Endeavorer keeps in mind the topics for seven 
or eight weeks to come, not only will he have no 
lack of something to say at every meeting, but the 
meetings themselves will be greatly deepened and 
enriched. 

A Word of Praise. — Praise is an important part 
of the duty of a member of the prayer-meeting com- 
mittee. If an Endeavorers words please you, if his 
prayer inspires you, if his singing uplifts you, say so. 
This will not be flattery, which ruins, but apprecia- 
tion, which blesses him that gives and him that 
takes. Especially is it your duty thus to heip the 
weaker members whenever you conscientiously can, 
and with none should you take greater heed to per- 
form this duty than with the inexperienced leader, 
who is certain to think his first meeting a complete 
failure. 

Helps for the Timid Members. — Many Endeav- 
orers that are too bashful to take part in the meeting 
beyond reading a verse from the Bible, would be led 



GENERAL WORK OF THE COMMITTEE. 3 1 

to further endeavors by a definite request from the 
prayer-meeting committee. Such a request might 
be printed, couched in this language : 

At the next Christian Endeavor prayer meeting, will 
you not rise and pray when opportunity is given? Three 
sentences will be enough. If you wish you may use the 

following subject: 

Yours for the Master, 

Prayer-Meeting Committee. 

Instead of asking the member to rise and pray, a 
request may be made that he take part in the sen- 
tence prayers. The following similar blank is useful 
for the same purpose : 

" Heaven is not reached by a single bound, 
But we build the ladder by which we rise 
From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies, 
And we mount to its summit round by round." 

Will you not write a few sentences on the subject to 
read at the next meeting? Fifty words will be enough. 
Yours in the work, 

Prayer-Meeting Committee. 

A Young Women's Division. — If the young 
women of your society are backward about taking 
part in the meetings, it will be helpful to organize 
for a time a young women's division, which will meet 
just before the whole society, or at some time during 
the previous week. No one should be permitted to 



2,2 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

enter the young women's division that is already a 
skillful prayer-meeting worker. 

The topic should be the one that is to be taken up 
at the coming meeting, and all that take part in the 
young women's division should consider this an 
extra service, in no way freeing them from the 
pledged duties to the regular society. Many of the 
older women of the church may be glad to join this 
division of the Endeavor society, to gain strength in 
it for the work of the mid-week prayer meeting of 
the church. 

Cottage Prayer Meetings. — For many a prayer- 
meeting committee the work of carrying on their 
own prayer meetings is so easy that they are in need 
of outside work to do, and no committee could do a 
better work for its own society, whether the society 
is strong or weak, than by holding cottage prayer 
meetings in the homes of the sick, of the congrega- 
tion, as well as in the homes of those throughout the 
town that for one reason or another do not go to 
church, but are willing to receive such a service. 
These meetings are especially grateful to the aged. 

The cottage prayer meeting, of course, will not 
require the attendance of the entire society, but the 
Endeavorers should be divided into bands, these 
bands agreeing to conduct the cottage services in 
their turn for a certain length of time, or possibly to 
take up throughout the year this work in some sec- 
tion of the town. Cottage prayer meetings are 
largely occupied with singing, and there should be 
much prayer, reading of the Scriptures, and helpful, 



GENERAL WORK OF THE COMMITTEE. 33 

comforting, and strengthening comments thereon, 
both prose and poetry. There should also be tes- 
tifying, but this is a rare gift, and no one should 
hesitate to join the bands for holding cottage prayer 
meetings because he or she cannot testify elo- 
quently. Often a beautiful poem sympathetically 
read, or a clear voice in the singing, will do as much 
for the meeting as some more formal testimony. 

From these cottage prayer meetings important 
mission work is likely to grow. This work is taken 
up far more extensively by Christian Endeavorers in 
foreign lands than in our own, I am sorry to say. 

Christian Endeavor Oratory. — For no ambitious 
reason, but solely for the cause of Christ, every 
Christian should earnestly seek the power of effec- 
tive public speech. The prayer-meeting committee 
will score a good point if on every suitable occasion 
they suggest to the Endeavorers what a field for the 
cultivation of Christian oratory is furnished by the 
Christian Endeavor prayer meeting. At the same 
time it must be made plain what oratory is, — that 
true eloquence consists in sincerity and straightfor- 
wardness, in having something to say that is worth 
saying, and in saying it in the fear of God. Upon 
this point the eminent Baptist minister, Russell H. 
Conwell, has the following to say : 

The art of extemporaneous speech had been almost lost 
in this country up to the time when the Christian En- 
deavor movement began its great work. It was a very 
current idea in public opinion at that time that the uses of 



34 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

oratory were largely past. To be able to make an effec- 
tive speech was considered somewhat old-fashioned, and 
was regarded as an accomplishment which must soon be- 
come a thing wholly of the past. 

But the Christian Endeavor pledge, which required that 
every member should take some part in each meeting, has 
developed abilities for extemporaneous speaking which 
must have greatly astonished the pastors and churches 
where these organizations have prospered. 

Timid boys and more sensitive girls have begun with 
trembling, and expressed themselves in broken sentences, 
or by a misquotation, at the beginning of their Christian 
Endeavor experiences, who now speak with fluency and 
beauty, putting their ideas in such concise and lucid form 
as to convince, attract, and entertain in the most delight- 
ful and helpful manner possible. 

Using Christian Endeavor Papers. — Some so- 
cieties subscribe for a copy of a good Christian 
Endeavor paper, that is given to the chairman of 
the prayer-meeting committee for the time being. 
After the chairman has read it, he cuts out all of the 
many committee helps, and pastes them in scrap- 
books for the use of the different committees. 

A Unique Committee. — At least one Christian 
Endeavor society makes up its prayer-meeting com- 
mittee from the president, vice-president, secretary, 
treasurer, organist, and chorister of the society. The 
officers are presumably the most active workers in 
the society, and thus a strong prayer-meeting com- 
mittee is assured. Each officer in turn is held re- 
sponsible for the meetings of one month. He leads 



GENERAL WORK OF THE COMMITTEE. 35 

the first meeting of the month, while the last meet- 
ing, the consecration, is always led by one of the 
church officers. 

While this plan is not to be recommended for all 
societies, by any means, it may meet the need of 
certain churches. 

Personal Work. — ■ It is very difficult, often, to get 
our societies to doing personal evangelistic work. 
The following blanks, if printed, or worked off on a 
manifolder, may be used effectively by any prayer- 
meeting committee for the purpose of arousing the 
Endeavorers to their duty toward the unsaved : 

Please fill out this blank and put it in the question- 
box: 

During the past year have you spoken to any concern- 
ing their salvation, that you might lead them to Christ? 

If so, how many?......-.................... 

If you have not, will you do so during the coming 
week?. ....................... 

Yours for Christ and the Church, 

The Prayer-Meeting Committee. 

"I will make it a rule of my life to pray every day.'''' 
Will you not remember in your daily prayers the follow- 
ing persons: 



Yours in Christian Endeavor, 
Prayer-Meeting Committee. 



36 



PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 



Absentee Blanks. — It is a great mistake for the 
members of the prayer-meeting committee to empha- 
size merely the absences from consecration meet- 
ings, and say nothing about the helpful practice of 
sending messages to other meetings from which the 
members are obliged to be absent. Copies of the 
following absentee blank may be w r orked off on a 
mimeograph or other duplicating machine, and a 
supply given to each member of the society : 



Members' Absentee Blank. 



Litchfield, III., , 189 

Y. P. S. C. E., Christian Church. 

Dear Endeavorers : Desiring to contribute 
my part toward the success of the next prayer 
meeting, I ask you to accept the following : — 



Hoping the meeting will be one of interest 
and profit, and praying that God will abun- 
dantly bless our efforts in his name, 

I remain yours in Christian Endeavor, 



$3P"If obliged to be absent from any regu- 
lar meeting, kindly fill out above blank and 
send or mail to chairman of lookout com- 
mittee. 



GENERAL WORK OF THE COMMITTEE. 37 

A " Combine." — I have heard of eight boys in a 
Christian Endeavor society that entered into a writ- 
ten compact to make remarks or lead in prayer in 
every meeting for six months. The result was ad- 
mirable. Prayer-meeting committees that have diffi- 
culty in inducing some of their members to take the 
next step away from the verse-readers 1 class may find 
in this a valuable suggestion. 

Put Out Your Sign. — The Christian Endeavor 
society may well have a prominent sign on the front 
of the church, announcing the time of its meeting. 
In addition, on prayer-meeting nights there should 
be hung outside of the church or the prayer-meeting 
room a transparency like the following : 




Prayer-Meeting Tonight. 
WELCOME ! 



A Shelf. — In each society meeting room the 
prayer-meeting committee should have a shelf or 
some other convenient place where it may put the 
society's topic cards, so that new members may 
readily be supplied. The shelf will be found useful 
also for slips of paper containing references appro- 
priate to the topic, or for the transmission of bits 
of information, as well as of calls for committee 
meetings. 

Watchwords. — The prayer-meeting committee 
can give a little inspiration to the society by select- 



38 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

ing a watchword for each month. This watchword 
may be placed on the blackboard in the front of the 
room where the meetings are held, so that the mem- 
bers are reminded of it at every meeting. It should 
be suggested that at the consecration meeting the 
members tell in what way, if any, this watchword 
has helped them in their daily living. 



THE COMMITTEE AND THE SOCIETY. 39 



CHAPTER III. 

THE COMMITTEE AND THE SOCIETY. 

Work Together. — The prayer-meeting committee 
should always work in close relations with several 
other committees. The music committee should 
frequently be in consultation with it, as many of the 
plans for the prayer meeting require special music 
and wise selection of hymns. The flower committee 
should transfer to the society room, whenever pos- 
sible, the floral decorations they have placed in the 
church for the church services. The good-literature 
committee might aid any meeting by the distribution 
of appropriate tracts. 

The missionary committee should have entire 
charge of the meeting devoted to missions, but sug- 
gestions from the prayer-meeting committee would 
be cordially welcomed. Above all, the lookout com- 
mittee should be in league with the prayer-meeting 
committee, so that the plan of the meeting may 
always be such as to have the best effect upon the 
associate members, and upon other young people 
whose needs the lookout committee is striving to 
meet. 

Meet Together. — The deliberations of the prayer- 
meeting committee would often be enriched and 
vivified by the presence of these committees whose 



4-0 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

work is along closely associated lines, such, for in- 
stance, as the lookout committee, or, less often, the 
music, missionary, and temperance committees. Of 
course the chairmen of all the committees come to- 
gether in the executive committee meeting, but it is 
well, also, to bring together once in a while all com- 
mitteemen whose work is along similar lines. 

Practical Discussions. — Occasional exercises in 
the nature of committee conferences may be a useful 
feature of our prayer meetings. These committee 
conferences may occupy possibly fifteen minutes, and 
they should come at the beginning of the prayer 
meeting, so that the deeper spiritual impress may 
be left for the close. They should be led by the 
president of the society, or by the pastor, or by the 
chairman of the committee whose work is under dis- 
cussion. A two- or three-minute paper may intro- 
duce the discussion, and there may occasionally be 
a question-box, or an answer-box; but the greater 
part of the time should be occupied with voluntary 
participation. 

Take these as samples of the topics that may be 
discussed in these open parliaments: "How may 
our socials be made more helpful? " " How can we 
obtain more prayers in our meetings?" "What is 
the best time and method for the daily Bible-read- 
ing? " " How do you find the pledge helpful in your 
week-day life?" " In what ways may the music of 
our society be improved? " 

Led by Committees. — Once in a while appoint a 
committee to take entire charge of the prayer meet- 



THE COMMITTEE AND THE SOCIETY. 41 

ing. The different members of the committee will 
be assigned different lines of work. One may take 
charge of the singing, another of the Bible-reading, 
others will divide the topic of the evening among 
them, saying a few words each. A series of meet- 
ings thus led by committees sometimes serves to 
wake up a society, the different committees vieing 
with one another to produce good meetings. This 
plan of course would not be a good one for a perma- 
nent arrangement, but the temporary adoption of it 
would get a society very pleasantly out of its ruts. 

A Pause Committee. — A very useful adjunct to 
the prayer-meeting committee is a pause committee, 
which may be under the supervision of the prayer- 
meeting committee. The members of the pause 
committee agree to fill the breach whenever there 
occurs in the prayer meeting one of those dreadful 
pauses that sometimes come in the meetings of the 
most active society. 

Where the members are not numerous enough to 
furnish this additional committee, the ordinary com- 
mittees of the society may be asked to take up in 
turn, month about, the work of the pause commit- 
tee ; or sometimes it is found best to appoint for 
each meeting three or four Encleavorers, numbering 
them, and asking them to fill the pauses in the order 
of their numbers ; or the same course may be pur- 
sued, using only the members of the prayer-meeting 
committee. Most commonly a pause occurs at the 
start, at the close of the leaders remarks, when he 
makes the portentous statement, w The meeting is 



42 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

now open;" and the pause committee should be 
especially instructed to fill this gap. 

A Call for Ideas. — Active workers in the Chris- 
tian Endeavor societies are sometimes likely to un- 
dervalue the opinions and practical wisdom of the 
younger members and those less prominent in the 
society work. Such a symposium as the following 
letter calls for would undoubtedly bring in, however, 
many valuable ideas, and, if nothing else was ac- 
complished, would at least set the members of the 
society to thinking about the society work. 

Here is the letter, copies of which should be made 
on a manifolder and handed to each Endeavorer, 
and a response be written and returned to the 
prayer-meeting committee, whose chairman will pre- 
sent to the society the most helpful points in the 
responses. 

Dear Friend : In order that the service which the Y. 
P. S. C. E. is trying to render to the pastor, members, 
and congregation of the First Church may be increased, 
will you please answer by letter the following questions? 
Any criticism or suggestions which you may choose to 
give about the work of the society will be gratefully 
received, and treated as confidential if so desired. 
For the prayer-meeting committee, 

C. H. Bird. 

1. In your judgment is the society doing its work as 
well as could be expected? 

2. If not, shall we improve our present methods of 
work, or shall we change them? 



THE COMMITTEE AND THE SOCIETY. 43 

3. What changes, if any, would you suggest? 

4. How can we best help to get all the young people 
of the church, especially the young men, interested in the 
work of the church, and get them willingly to take an 
active part in the same? 

5. How can we increase the work which the society is 
doing, and yet have all the members feel, not that the in- 
crease is a call to a new duty or a new burden, but that 
it means that they are to have a new joy given them by 
being sent about the Master's work? 

Weekly Encouragements. — It is an admirable 
plan to devote a few minutes of every weekly meet- 
ing to the recitation of encouragements. If any of 
the committees have met with especial success during 
the past week, if they have developed any new 
methods of working, if any individual members have 
received special blessings, or if any Endeavorers 
have observed deeds of kindness and helpfulness in 
others — such bits of good cheer should be pre- 
sented at this time for the good of all. A few min- 
utes devoted to this exercise will be not only a great 
stimulus to optimism, but will become, as the mem- 
bers prepare for them, an education in the noble art 
of looking on the bright side of things. 

A List of Visitors. — Lists of visitors should be 
kept carefully in every Christian Endeavor society. 
One of the results of keeping such a list will be fre- 
quent hints given to the lookout committee regard- 
ing young people that are getting interested in the 
society and may easily be persuaded to become 
members. 



44 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

Such a list might well take the form of an auto- 
graph album, the visitors being requested to sign 
their names with their own hands, at the same time 
giving their addresses. Thus they will have one 
tangible proof of the interest of the Endeavorers, 
and besides, the album furnishes a means of break- 
ing the ice and entering into conversation with the 
strangers. The service may be undertaken by the 
lookout or the social committee, but it falls not in- 
appropriately also to the care of the prayer-meeting 
committee. 

Opening Questions. — I have heard of a Presby- 
terian society in which it is the custom to open 
every meeting with a series of questions propounded 
by the president, and referring to the wider work of 
the society. These questions are : 

1. Does any member of this society know of a brother 
or sister who is seriously ill or permanently disabled? 

2. Does any member know of children that do not 
attend any Sunday school? 

3. Does any Endeavorer know of a case of extreme 
poverty and destitution within reach of our church? 

4. Can any Endeavorer give the name of a suitable 
young person who is not a member of any Christian 
Endeavor society, so that we may send him an invitation 
to join? 

These questions may suggest to other societies 
one very helpful way of keeping before the members 
the special endeavors of the society. 

Signed. — If your prayer-meeting committee is in 



THE COMMITTEE AND THE SOCIETY. 45 

the habit of using printed slips to invite strangers 
to the meeting, to urge increased faithfulness to the 
pledge, or the like, be sure that these printed slips 
are signed by the members or the chairman of the 
committee. In this way a personality is given to 
the document that renders it doubly effective. 

Letters to the Home Society. — The prayer-meet- 
ing committee should urge all members of the society 
that leave town for a temporary absence, to write 
at least one letter to be read in the society. The 
absent member should of course visit during his 
absence all Christian Endeavor societies he can, 
observe their methods, and describe them for the 
benefit of his home society. Such letters should 
especially be written during vacations, and the read- 
ing of them will do much to keep up the interest of 
the society meetings during this otherwise some- 
what dull period. 

A Letter Bag. — The absent members of our 
societies are not sufficiently cared for. It will be a 
pleasant attention to make up for them occasionally 
a letter bag, as it might be called. This is a collec- 
tion of short notes and texts made by the Endeav- 
orers and gathered by the prayer-meeting committee 
for sending to the absent members. It will be bet- 
ter to let the society know beforehand to whom its 
letter bags are to be sent, in order that the notes 
may have as much personal flavor as possible. 



46 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE COMMITTEE AND THE CHURCH. 

For the Church Prayer Meeting. — The prayer- 
meeting committee may do very much to add to the 
interest of the prayer meeting of the church. Of 
course all the Endeavorers have promised to attend 
this, but not so many as should, probably, are taking 
part in it. For the latter purpose the prayer-meet- 
ing committee may well divide the society into four 
or five divisions, and assign each division to some 
week of the month, sending to the members some 
such request as the following : 



Our pastor would like to have you present 
and take some part in the Regular Prayer 
Meeting on Thursday evening, 

If unable to be there, please send something 
to be read, or an excuse to the pastor. 

The C. E. Prayer-Meeting Committee. 
West Stockbridge, Mass. 



Gradual Graduation. — It will be the fault of the 

prayer-meeting committee, largely, if the thought 
and prospect of graduation are not kept before the 
society. Bear in mind that the society is a training 



THE COMMITTEE AND THE CHURCH. 47 

school, and that its work must all be done with an 
eye to larger work in the church. Remember that 
graduation from an Endeavor society should be, as 
the word implies, gradual, and so especially seek to 
bring about the participation of the Endeavorers, 
more and more as they continue in the work, in the 
prayer meeting of the older church members. 

At first the Endeavorers may be induced merely 
to read a brief passage from the Bible, then to re- 
peat it from memory, then to add a sentence or two 
of their own, then to offer a brief prayer or a short 
testimony. Young people often fail to realize how 
helpful a few words from them will be in a meeting 
of older folks, — how this delights them and encour- 
ages them. 

Some Statistics. — The prayer-meeting committee 
should watch the work of the Endeavorers in con- 
nection with the midweek prayer meeting of the 
church. This, when they sign the pledge, they 
promise to attend. It is well to get at the facts by 
taking a census, the committee counting the number 
of Endeavorers present for a series of midweek 
prayer meetings. To prevent discouragement, count 
also the number of church members present. It 
will usually be found that the Endeavorers are more 
faithful to prayer-meeting attendance than the older 
church members, as indeed, considering their youth, 
they should be. 

However, all the Endeavorers, or practically all, 
should, in remembrance of their pledge, be present 
at the midweek meeting, and the prayer-meeting 



4& PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

committee should hammer away at the point, both in 
public and private, until this result is accomplished. 

At the Midweek Service. — It will greatly help 
the Christian Endeavor society if its interests are 
brought frequently before the entire body of the 
church gathered together at the midweek prayer 
meeting; and if the older Christians are not re- 
minded of the Endeavor society at this weekly gath- 
ering, whose fault is it? I have heard of a society 
that regularly appoints some Endeavorer each week 
to attend the midweek service and offer special 
prayer for the Christian Endeavor society. 

In Their Care. — In some churches one of the 
midweek prayer meetings of each month is placed in 
charge of the Endeavorers. They aid the pastor 
in selecting the topic, the leader is chosen by the 
Christian Endeavor prayer-meeting committee, and 
the Endeavorers are made to feel that, though the 
older people take part freely, upon the young people 
rests especially the burden of the meeting. 

A Front Seat Brigade. — A certain Christian 
Endeavor society was deploring the vacant front 
seats in the midweek and Sunday evening meetings 
of the church, and solved the problem themselves in 
a way that is possible for every Christian Endeavor 
society. Some one had proposed Christian En- 
deavor ushers, to coax people to occupy those seats. 
44 What! young folks telling their elders where they 
ought to sit?" exclaimed another, in abhorrence. 
" Let us fill those seats ourselves."" 

And so it was. The leader of the next prayer 



THE COMMITTEE AND THE CHURCH. 49 

meeting stated the difficulty in about twenty words. 
"Now," said he, abruptly, "we want all of you 
Endeavorers who will promise to fill the very front 
seats, middle block, beginning at the front and keep- 
ing on back as far as the eighth seat, at every church 
meeting, unless already filled, — we want you to 
rise." 

The Endeavorers, without a word of argument or 
pleading, rose, to the number of thirty-four. That 
was all there was of it. No, not quite all ; those 
front seats have been filled ever since. 

After Meetings. — The common order is to hold 
the Christian Endeavor services before the regular 
evening church service of Sunday evening. In many 
churches, however, the conditions will favor making 
the Christian Endeavor meeting an after service, to 
which can be invited all those that have been espe- 
cially moved or attracted by the pastor's talk, and 
wish to have an opportunity either of confessing 
Christ or of testifying to their own faith. These will 
be gladly welcomed by the Christian Endeavorers. 

Many pastors feel the great advantage of this after 
service, and the Endeavorers would be glad to aid in 
carrying it on. Besides that, when the Christian 
Endeavor service is held after the evening meeting, 
the pastor is enabled to tell by the testimonies of his 
Endeavorers what portion of his sermon has been 
especially helpful to the young people, and this is 
no slight gain. Doubtless, however, for most local- 
ities it is preferable to place the Christian Endeavor 
meeting before the evening service. 



50 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

Older People in the Meeting. — One hears very 
little nowadays of the objection formerly made to the 
'Christian Endeavor Society, that it would establish a 
line of demarcation between the old and the young 
people of the church. It has been abundantly proved 
that it does no such thing. It is partly the work of 
the prayer-meeting committee to see that so un- 
toward a result never occurs in your church. Show 
the older Christians that they are wanted in the 
young people's meetings. Occasionally have a no- 
tice to that effect given out in the church, that there 
may be no mistake about it, and invite them per- 
sonally, especially those that are not likely to come 
without the invitation. 

Once in a while, call upon them by name to speak 
and pray in the meeting. If they take part at too 
great length, get the president to remind them 
frankly that they must be brief, in order that the 
many members present may have opportunity to keep 
their pledge. Instruct the leaders to call upon some 
of the older people to say a few words on the topic, 
calling out different ones at each meeting. 

It is an admirable plan to give special invitations 
to attend the meeting to those of the older church 
people that are especially interested in the week's 
topic. If, for example, the topic concerns the rela- 
tion between the Sunday school and the Christian 
Endeavor society, especially invite the Sunday-school 
superintendent to be present, and to speak. If the 
Junior work is to be considered, ask the teacher of 
the primary department of the Sunday school to be 



THE COMMITTEE AND THE CHURCH. 5 1 

there, and to add her wisdom. If it is patriotic, in- 
vite some old soldier, or some office-holder. If the 
topic is prayer, call in some prominent prayer-meet- 
ing worker from the older prayer meeting. Give 
frequent special invitations to the pastor and the 
church officers to take part on particular topics. 

Pastors Evening. — Some societies have the 
pleasant custom of giving one evening of each month 
into the hands of the pastor, who conducts the ser- 
vice as he pleases, of course giving an opportunity 
for all to take part as usual. Generally, however, 
the evening takes the turn of discussions of different 
phases of church work. One of the interesting fea- 
tures is a question-box, open to all the members, and 
conducted by the pastor. 

A Church Officers' Meeting. — Get all the church 
officers and the pastor to attend this meeting, and 
let a representative from each department of the 
church work give a short talk to Endeavorers con- 
cerning his field of activity. Here is a suggested 
programme : 

Three ways in which the Christian Endeavor society can 
help the pastor. 

Three ways in which the Christian Endeavor society can 
help the deacons. 

Three ways in which the Christian Endeavor society can 
help the trustees. 

Three ways in which the Christian Endeavor society can 
help the Sunday-school superintendent. 

How can the Christian Endeavor society help the com- 
mittee on visitation? 



52 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

How can the Christian Endeavor society help the la- 
dies' missionary circle? 

Can the Christian Endeavor society help the ladies' aid 
society? If so, how? 

An Honorary Members' Meeting, — The entire 
charge of this meeting is to be placed in the hands 
of the honorary members, namely, the officers of the 
church, the Sunday-school superintendent, and such 
of the older members of the church as wish to main- 
tain a connection with the society but cannot keep 
up active membership. One of these is to be the 
leader, and especial pains is to be taken to obtain 
a full attendance of this class of Endeavorers. The 
result of such a meeting would doubtless be to add 
greatly to the interest the honorary members take in 
the society and the society in the honorary members. 

With the Pastor. — Divide the society into sec- 
tions containing about eight persons each. To each 
section apportion some timid and some experienced 
members. To each of these divisions a week will 
be assigned. 

Fifteen minutes before the opening of the prayer 
meeting for that week, the division will meet in the 
pastor's study with the pastor, the prayer-meeting 
committee, the president, and the leader for the 
evening, to kneel and pray for the meeting to follow. 
It is understood that they are to take part in the 
same order at the very opening of the following 
meeting. 



AT HOME. 53 



CHAPTER V. 

AT HOME. 

Preparation for the Meeting. — The prayer-meet- 
ing committee should have an oversight of the prep- 
aration the members make for the prayer meetings. 
Let them occasionally speak in the meetings, urging 
more thoughtful and painstaking preparation. It is 
a good plan to buy a lot of cheap note-books, of 
convenient size for the vest pocket, and sell them to 
the Endeavorers at cost, that they may be used, in 
accordance with a suggestion before made in this 
book, as thought-books for the Christian Endeavor 
topics. Let each topic, and the Scripture reference 
for each week, be given a separate page, and urge 
the Endeavorers to look forward for six or seven 
weeks to come. If these advance topics are kept in 
mind, they will all be astonished to see how many 
appropriate hints they will glean from their news- 
papers and other reading, and how many thoughts 
will come to them as they go to their work. 

Besides this, the committee may get the mem- 
bers to take thought for the meetings some time in 
advance, by themselves making mention of future 
meetings. It would be useful if one member of 
the prayer-meeting committee should take it as his 
especial work to look up books and articles that 



54 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

throw light on the next week's topic, and speak of 
these at each prayer meeting. Once in a while, call 
for prayer for the next prayer meeting, that an espe- 
cial blessing may be vouchsafed to it. 

Occasionally get the leader for the next week to 
speak, in the prayer meeting of the present week, 
regarding his plans for the next meeting, calling for 
whatever co-operation he desires. If, for instance, 
the topic is prayer, he might ask the members to 
speak, each of them, on some Bible prayer ; or to 
come prepared to tell some occasion in their own 
experience, or the experience of others, on which 
prayer has been especially helpful ; or he might ask 
for a committing to memory of brief poems regard- 
ing prayer ; or he might ask the members to write out 
their heart experiences in the matter, for him to read. 

The prayer-meeting committee should keep before 
the society a standing offer to help those that find it 
hard to prepare for the meeting, but the committee 
should themselves seek out those whose participa- 
tion in the meeting shows that they are in need of 
such assistance, and should spend for these their 
chief energies. 

It would be of service for some skilled worker 
with the Bible to take a quarter of an hour at the 
Christian Endeavor meeting to show the Endeavor- 
ers just how to use Bible index and concordance, in 
order to obtain light on the prayer-meeting topics. 
On occasion a capable Endeavorer might give a sim- 
ple, practical lesson regarding the use of the hymn- 
book. Any hymn-book with a good topical index at 



AT HOME. 55 

the back, will furnish a large number of beautiful 
thoughts on any of the prayer-meeting topics. 

On still another week, put forward a practical 
worker to illustrate the use of the questions on 
the topic given in The Golden Rule each week. 
These are for the purpose of stimulating thought, 
and suggesting themes for expansion in the meeting. 
This Endeavorer should take the questions for the 
next meeting, one after the other, read them, and 
show how, if the questions are followed up, each one 
of them will furnish the Endeavorer with an admi- 
rable little talk. 

There are certain questions, moreover, that will 
always bring out the meaning of a prayer-meeting 
topic, and the prayer-meeting committee should 
teach the Endeavorers to ask these questions for 
themselves. For example: "What does this topic 
mean for me?" "How does it touch my common 
daily life?" " If I should put into my life the truth 
it suggests, how would it change things? " " What 
illustrations of this topic have I seen in life, or no- 
ticed in my reading? " 

It will not be easy for the prayer-meeting commit- 
tee to get the members to think for themselves, but 
that is the primal requisite for helpful participation 
in the prayer meeting ; and the committee should 
stick to it until they have aw r akened every Endeav- 
orer in the society, and put an end to all meaning- 
less and perfunctory modes of participation. 

Getting Something to Say. — I copy here a little 
article I once wrote, in the hope that it may show 



56 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

prayer-meeting committees how to deal with the 
Endeavorers that find it very hard to join actively in 
the meetings. 

" How can I ever take part in the Christian En- 
deavor meeting ? " This question is often heard. 
" I have no original ideas. I am not gifted in that 
way. I can read a verse of the Bible, and that is all 
I can do." 

Well, if that were all you could do, dear Timid, 
that would be a great deal. A Bible verse, if said 
prayerfully and earnestly, is able to work the miracle 
of converting a soul. But it will be best for you if 
you add to this repetition of Scripture some word of 
your own, if you can. And I think that every one 
can, — every one, however bashful, and however he 
may think himself unfitted for the task. 

If I were going to-morrow to attend a Christian 
Endeavor service, I should begin my preparation to- 
day — if, indeed, it were not begun several days 
ago. And this is the way I should go at it. 

First, the subject is to be considered. Read it 
carefully. Think over it a little. Often this alone 
will tell you something you want to say. 

Then read the Bible references and the daily read- 
ings for the week, if you have not already done so. 
There is no commentary like the Bible, nothing 
equal to it for quickening the mind. Probably by 
this time you have another thing you want to say. 

Ask yourself how the topic affects you, what it has 
to do with your society and your church. Consider 
how your life and the lives of others would be 



AT HOME. 57 

changed if all should conform to the precepts of the 
lesson. Such thoughts will certainly give you some- 
thing more to say, either of a personal or of a general 
character. 

Look back into your past. Does it not teach you 
a lesson along this line? Have you no confession to 
make? Have you learned nothing on this point? 
Have your experience and observation shown you 
nothing that you could repeat for the good of your 
comrades? 

Next, bethink yourself of your reading. Do you 
not recall some helpful poem in harmony with the 
subject of the meeting, a part of which you can 
repeat? Is there not some striking incident of which 
you have read that will point an appropriate moral ? 
Has not some essayist expressed a thought that will 
give you the key-note of what you want to say ? 

Getting something to say? Why, clear Timid, 
just try faithfully and prayerfully all these sources 
and stimuli of thought, and, my word for it, your 
puzzle will then be, not to find something to say, 
but to choose among the many things you want to 
say the one thing that, on the whole, will be most 
helpful to your comrades in Christian Endeavor. 

Speaking in Meeting. — Many who have most 
excellent things to say in our Christian Endeavor 
meetings fail of the highest usefulness because they 
do not say them in the best way. Almost invaria- 
bly the fault is in the manner of preparation. I wish 
to give a few hints, not to the experienced speaker, 
but to the beginner in this prayer-meeting work. 



58 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

I will suppose that you have the thought you wish 
to present, that you are greatly in earnest regarding 
it, and want to put it in the most effective way be- 
fore your fellow Christians. How will you go at it? 

Write it out. Yes, write it out ! What is written 
is fixed in the mind as it can be in no other way. If 
it does not please you in the first form, write it out 
again, and again, until the thought is expressed as 
neatly and forcibly as you can put it. 

Then tear up what you have written. Yes, tear it 
up into the finest possible bits. Don't try to remem- 
ber the words you have written. You are not going 
to speak a piece. You are going to speak a thought. 

Try to give speech to your thought now, in the 
quiet of your own room. Fancy yourself addressing 
the society. Don't think how you are saying it, — 
just say it. Can you do this clearly and without 
hesitating? Then wait a few hours, and see if you 
can do it again. Say it as you go about your work, 
on the streets, as you dress in the morning, when- 
ever you have a spare minute. You may say it every 
time a different way. When you go to say it before 
the society you may say it in a way different from 
any of these ways. What is the harm ? 

If possible, talk the matter over with some one 
who will sympathize with you. Nothing clarifies 
one's ideas better than conversation. The other En- 
deavorer, too, will want to talk over his thoughts 
with you. 

When you come to the meeting, don't think about 
yourself. Don't think about your words. Don't 



AT HOME. 59 

think about the impression you are making. Don't 
be silly in any way. You are just one of God's little 
children, and those folks around you are just God's 
little children, every one of them. And you are tell- 
ing them something that God has given you to say. 
You are not making a speech. You are not making 
an impression. Indeed, it is not you that is speak- 
ing, if you are speaking rightly, but it is God who is 
speaking through you. Why should you not speak 
boldly, and simply, and lovingly, and — for this is 
only a condensation of these three — eloquently, 
also? 

A Prayer List. — It will prove a help to your so- 
ciety in their daily devotions, if you present to each 
of them a printed list, that may be prepared on a 
manifolder, containing the names of the active, the 
associate, and the absent members of the society. 
Each name is dated, and on every day all the mem- 
bers are to pray for the one whose name is on that day. 

Pray Aloud in Private. — The prayer-meeting 
committee will do much to get the Endeavorers to 
take part by prayer in public meetings, if they can 
persuade them to make it a habit to pray aloud in 
their private devotions. This will seem strange and 
confusing at first, but in a while the practice will 
tend to concentration of thought. The petitions 
will become more earnest and extended, and, best of 
all, the Endeavorers will become able to pray aloud 
in public without any feeling of constraint. 

Special Prayers. — The prayer-meeting committee 
may often introduce into the private devotions of the 



6o PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

members of the society much directness and power 
by occasionally requesting special prayers during the 
coming week for certain particular objects. For 
instance, if the president or some committee of the 
society has undertaken any especially difficult work, 
let prayers be requested for their success. If any 
member of the society is in special trouble, ask for 
petitions in his behalf. If any special cause for 
thanksgiving arises, ask for prayers of praise. The 
results of such directions, though hidden, cannot 
easily be estimated. 

Suggestions for Prayer. — The daily devotions of 
the Endeavorers will be likely to have power in pro- 
portion as they have deflniteness. The following 
suggestions for themes for daily prayer may be 
printed by a manifolder and given to each, or a place 
may be found for them on the society topic cards. 

SUGGESTIONS FOR DAILY PRAYER. 

Believing that God will grant a special blessing in an- 
swer to united prayer for definite objects, the prayer- 
meeting committee requests you, as a member of our 
society, to remember in prayer, every week, the following 
objects on the days named : 

Sunday. — Our church, our pastor; that by means of 
the services to-day, Christians may be strengthened and 
souls may be won to Christ. 

Monday. — Our society of Christian Endeavor, its 
officers, the prayer meeting and its leader; that we may 
all remember that we are servants of Christ. 

Tuesday. — Our Sabbath school, its officers and teach' 



AT HOME. 6 1 

ers; that the teaching and the life may prove the truth of 
the gospel. 

Wednesday. — Onr church prayer meeting ; that we 
may all see and do our duty in regard to it ; that all Chris- 
tians may bring forth much fruit through abiding in Christ. 

Thursday. — The young people in our church who 
have not declared themselves on the Lord's side ; that 
they may soon know and own Christ as their Redeemer 
and Lord. 

Friday. — The members of our church that are " shut 
in"; that Christ may be " all in all" to them. The 
children; that they may be kept " from the evil." 

Saturday. — All who are working for Christ at home 
or in foreign lands. " Pray ye therefore the Lord of the 
harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest." 

" And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask i?i prayer, 
believing, ye shall receive*" 



62 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE LEADER. 

Appointing Leaders. — Many prayer-meeting com- 
mittees make the mistake of going around to the 
members whom they desire to have lead the prayer 
meetings, asking each one in turn if he will lead upon 
a certain night. The committee should find out at 
the beginning of its term of office how many mem- 
bers are willing to lead the meetings. They may be 
asked to lead without any further notice than an 
announcement before the society, or upon a topic 
card or a bulletin board, or by postal card. Most of 
the members of any society will give the prayer- 
meeting committee this permission, it being always 
understood, of course, that if for any reason they 
cannot lead the meeting at that time, they will give 
the committee ample notice. This arrangement will 
save the committee much time and worry, and will at 
the same time exemplify in the society the spirit of 
Christian Endeavor. 

Of course the committee will not get this permis- 
sion from all the members, and in appointing leaders 
they should seek also to enlist in the service the 
more backward and less willing Endeavorers. It is 
a temptation for the committee to summon to the 
leadership only the more active workers, but this 



THE LEADER. 63 

would be a great mistake, since the Christian En- 
deavor Society is pre-eminently a training school. 
If anything, there should be a preponderance of un- 
skilled, timid, inexperienced leaders. 

Take especial pains to get the new members to 
lead, as soon as you think they are quite at home in 
the society work. There is no better way of intro- 
ducing them to the society, and of thoroughly settling 
them in their fellowship. 

When the Juniors are graduated into the older 
society, they should be given the leadership of meet- 
ings as soon as possible. Remember that they are 
accustomed to lead, and that it is particularly neces- 
sary for them to feel that they are not to be forced 
into the back seats. 

If there are any members that object very se- 
riously to leading, do not tease them ; simply show 
them that you wish them to lead, and consider it 
their duty to do so, using few and earnest words. 
Accept their refusal in a cheerful spirit, but be sure 
to return to the charge a few weeks or months later, 
and keep their consciences active in the matter, 
until you have won them to make an attempt. 

One of the best methods of helping those who are 
timid in this service is the plan of double leadership. 
Couple together the timid with the more experi- 
enced. The experienced worker will take the chief 
direction of the meeting and do the more difficult 
work, such as making introductory remarks and 
offering the opening prayer, but the reading of the 
Bible passage, the announcement of the hymns, and 



64 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

the like, should be put into the hands of the more 
timid of the pair. He may also read a few words of his 
own concerning the topic. Sometimes, if the society is 
large, there may even be more than two leaders, each 
of them speaking on one subdivision of the topic. 

The prayer-meeting committee should always see 
the member who is to lead the next meeting a week 
beforehand, to make certain that he is in town, and 
has not forgotten his coming duty. It is at this 
time that the committee should propose to the leader 
whatever plans they may have for the conduct of 
that meeting. 

Fit Leaders to Subjects. — In selecting the lead- 
ers, the prayer-meeting committee should bear in 
mind the subjects to which each is assigned and the 
characters of the various Endeavorers. It would be 
unwise, for example, to assign such a topic as " Sor- 
row and its Uses " to one whose life has been all 
sunshine, or such a theme as " The Duty of Happi- 
ness " to a sour and long-faced Endeavorer, — if 
such an anomaly is in existence. Be sure that your 
leaders, so far as possible, are fitted by character 
and experience to treat with force, or at least without 
striking inappropriateness, the topics to which they 
are assigned. 

Associates for Leaders. — I should never invite 
an associate member to lead a Christian Endeavor 
prayer meeting. Our leaders should always have as 
their chief aim the winning of souls to Christ. One 
that has not already come to the Master cannot well 
give an invitation to others. 



THE LEADER. 65 

In Alphabetical Order. — Some societies that do 
not intend that any member shall fail of the joy of 
leading the prayer meeting, arrange their members' 
names alphabetically, and each leads when his letter 
is reached. The advantage of this is that there is 
less likely to be shirking, and every one, moreover, 
knows when his turn comes. The disadvantage — 
and it is a serious one — is that thus it is rendered 
impossible for the committee to select leaders espe- 
cially fitted to the topics they are to discuss. 

Leaders in Rotation. — After all, one of the very 
best ways of selecting leaders for the Christian En- 
deavor meetings is to take the list of the society and 
have it distinctly understood that each member will 
lead once during a certain number of months. It 
will be necessary to shift the list a little in order to 
get appropriate leaders for the different topics, or in 
order to accommodate the members that cannot well 
be present on certain dates. 

But the essential thing is that the society shall es- 
tablish a universal custom of leading. Where all 
are expected to lead, new members as well as the 
experienced, and timid as well as courageous, few 
will even attempt to shirk. Some societies think it 
a loss not to keep in the leaders chair the more ex- 
perienced members. I am persuaded, on the con- 
trary, that the more timid and stammering leaders 
have the best meetings, since all rally to their assist- 
ance, and the experienced members can do nearly 
as much for the success of the meeting in the au- 
dience as in front of it. 



66 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

Alternate. — Some societies find it especially diffi- 
cult to persuade the young ladies to lead the meet- 
ings. Others have a lack of young men. Many a 
society, therefore, will find it advantageous, at least 
for a part of the year, to insist upon young men and 
young women alternating in the leadership of the 
meetings. Those that otherwise might be quite re- 
luctant to undertake the task will enter upon it under 
such circumstances. 

A Leader's Help. — Some societies have adopted 
the plan of having the president sit on the platform 
with the leader of the prayer meeting. When a 
society contains even a few timid members — and 
what society does not ? — this plan will be found very 
helpful in giving them courage and skill in conduct- 
ing the meetings. Besides, it keeps the president 
prominently before the society and keeps his hands 
on the reins. 

Leaders and Speakers. — Some English societies 
have the practice of appointing for each meeting not 
merely a leader, but what they call a speaker. The 
leader should be a good executive officer, able to 
conduct the meeting with despatch and vigor; but 
the speaker should be more glib in the use of his 
tongue. The leader may be one of the younger 
members, and the speaker one of the older ones. 
The leader will announce the hymns, set the meet- 
ing going, read the Scripture passages, and do other 
things of the sort, while the speaker will comment 
on the passages, and throw out suggestions for the 
general conduct of the meeting. Such Christian En- 



THE LEADER. 67 

deavor " teams" should often be organized. They 
will give variety as well as effectiveness to our meet- 
ings. 

Leader's Aids. — If all the members of your 
prayer-meeting committee are not able to give ef- 
fective assistance to the leaders, they should be edu- 
cated as soon as possible into this ability. Then 
you can carry out the admirable plan of appointing 
each member of the committee in turn to act as the 
aid for the leader for one evening. This aid will not 
only advise the leader as to the best way of carrying 
on the meeting, assisting him in planning for it, but 
will also be among the first to take part, to lead in 
any sentence prayers, start hymns impromptu, and 
in other ways seek to add interest to the evening. 

Committee Leaders. — A society that happens to 
have twelve committees has the custom of appointing 
one of these committees to lead the first meeting of 
each month. The same plan may be tried, as sug- 
gested in a former chapter, with a smaller number of 
committees. A slight rivalry is developed, and the 
more timid members are educated into methods of 
leadership. Of course no one member of the com- 
mittee has much to do, the work of leading being 
apportioned among the committeemen, to one or 
more the Scripture reading, to one the announcing 
of hymns, to one the prayers, to one or more the 
topic. 

Ready to Lead. — It is well for the prayer-meet- 
ing committee to appoint one member each month 
who would be ready to lead the meeting in case of 



68 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

the unexpected absence of the appointed leader. Of 
course such absences will be rare, but it is well to be 
provided for them. Too often this duty of filling 
the place of a leader providentially detained falls on 
the chairman of the prayer-meeting committee or 
on the president. 

A Notification, — A blank for notifying the mem- 
ber who is to lead the next prayer meeting will be 
found very useful. Such a blank is the following, 
that, with suitable changes, may be used by any 
society. 

Boston, Mass., May 5, 1892. 
Dear Brother : You have been appointed by the prayer- 
meeting committee to take charge of the Christian En- 
deavor prayer meeting on Tuesday next, May 10, with 
the subject of " Public Worship: a Privilege and a Duty," 
found in Ps. 84; Heb. 10: 25. We should be very much 
pleased to have you meet with our committee Sunday 
evening at 6.15, for the short prayer service. Trusting 
that you can comply with our request, I remain yours in 
the work for " Christ and his church," Daisy Flower, 
Chairman of prayer-meeting committee. 

Some Hints, — If your society uses a blank for the 
notification of leaders, it is a good plan to place 
upon the back of it ten or twelve blank lines, headed : 
" Order of Exercises. Commence Promptly.'' 1 Fol- 
lowing the blank lines may be the words : " Collec- 
tion" ; " Closing Hymn"; "Benediction"; "Close 
Promptly," and also the following suggestions to 
leaders : 



THE LEADER. 69 

Call upon the president to make announcements just 
before you read the lesson and announce the topic. 

Invite all strangers and any that are not members to 
take part. 

Give the last five minutes of the meeting, before the 
collection, to the pastor of the church, if he is present. 

Select hymns suitable to the topic. 

Make your opening remarks brief. 

Introduce sentence prayers. 

A Reminder. — If your committee has difficulty in 
keeping before the leaders the thought of the meet- 
ing they have promised to lead so that they will pre- 
pare for it long enough beforehand, and notify the 
committee in case they are unable to lead, a good 
remedy is this : hang up on the wall of the meeting 
room a large placard on which are printed the topic, 
date, and leader for each meeting for some months 
ahead. No one in your society can then urge the 
excuse, " I did not know I was to lead." 

Offer Your Services, — One of the most helpful 
things a member of the prayer-meeting committee 
can do is to go during the week to the leader of the 
next meeting and ask if he can be of any service in 
the meeting he is planning. Especially if the leader 
is an inexperienced and timid one, this inquiry will 
prove very encouraging. Even the most experienced 
leaders will be glad of such offers . 

A Leaders' Conference. — One of the most helpful 
gatherings that could possibly be brought together 
in your society is a conference of the leaders of the 
prayer meetings for a quarter, or for a number of 



70 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

weeks to come. This conference would be presided 
over by the president, or by the chairman of the 
prayer-meeting committee, or by some skilled prayer- 
meeting worker. The topics for the coming weeks 
should be taken up and discussed one by one, no 
especial aim being made to furnish comment upon 
them, the point of the discussion being rather to 
contrive fresh ways of presenting the evening's truth, 
and new methods of bringing out the thoughts of 
members. 

Some such book as the present would be peculiarly 
useful in leaders 1 conferences. The various methods 
herein suggested should have been studied before- 
hand by the leader of the conference, and he will 
present to the leaders of the coming meetings for 
their discussion and adoption whatever methods are 
most likely to be of service in connection with the 
topics of the quarter. The pastor should be present 
at this conference, and will greatly assist these de- 
liberations. It would be well for the conference to 
be opened, if there is time, by a bright and brief 
paper on practical prayer-meeting methods. 

Meet Early in the Week. — A word as to the 
time when prayer-meeting committees should meet 
with the leader for prayer and conference. If pos- 
sible, this conference should be held sometime dur- 
ing the early part of the week, in order that the 
committee may suggest to the leader helpful ways 
of conducting the meeting. If it is held just before 
the meeting, an immediate stimulus is gained, but it 
is too late to form general plans. 



THE LEADER. 7 I 

Prayer-Meeting Programmes. — Of course every 
prayer-meeting leader should have a definite pro- 
gramme, containing a few novel features ; possibly 
one would be enough for a meeting. Occasionally 
it is a good plan to print this programme on some 
duplicating machine, distributing the copies at the 
opening of the meeting. It is a good plan once in a 
while to print the programme in the town paper. 
This calls the attention of many to the work the 
society is doing, and may result in much good. 
Why should concerts have a monopoly of printed 
programmes ? 

Monthly Programmes. — It is a help to the 
prayer-meeting leader if he finds a programme al- 
ready prepared for him, and in certain societies it 
may be found best for the prayer-meeting committee 
to lay down a definite programme for each month, 
these programmes being varied month by month. 
The programme for the month, in outline, should 
be printed in distinct letters, and posted before the 
society. 

If there is any member of artistic skill, neatly 
drawn copies of the programme may be worked off 
on a mimeograph or hectograph. Possibly some 
amateur printer will be glad to print them. The 
programmes of consecutive months should be as dif- 
ferent as possible. 

Preparing to Lead. — Far too many leaders of our 
prayer meetings confine their preparation to getting 
something to say. That is the least of their busi- 
ness, their chief work being to get others to saying 



72 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

something ; and it is toward this effort that the 
greater part of their preparation should tend. 

The leaders chief aim in his remarks upon the 
topic should be not to say many things, or wise 
things, or primarily to say helpful things, but to say 
suggestive things, things that will set other brains 
to thinking and other spirits to feeling. 

The leader should plainly suggest at the outset 
some ways in which the members may take part, 
provided they have no preference of their own, and 
his own participation should be rather in the way of 
setting them an example than to cover the ground. 

The leader should come to the meeting having 
already assured himself that it will be a good one. 
He can do this only by advance work with the dif- 
ferent members, asking one to speak upon this phase 
of the topic, another upon that ; giving a poem to 
this backward member that he may read it, and a 
question to another that he may answer it ; asking 
one to start a series of sentence prayers, and another 
to give an anecdote about some Christian life in har- 
mony with the topic. 

And after the leader in his preparation has de- 
cided what he will do and what he wants others to 
do, it remains for him to form a definite plan for the 
meeting, deciding precisely the order in which he 
wishes to introduce the different portions of his 
plan, and going over the meeting in his imagina- 
tion many times, saying himself what he intends to 
say as if the audience were before him, and fancy- 
ing the ways in which they will respond to his skill- 



THE LEADER. 73 

fully conceived designs. In all this, it need not be 
said, room must be left for change, addition, and 
compression, or for the entire abandonment of the 
plan, if the spirit of the meeting should make this 
necessary. 

Vary the Opening. — The leader should bear in 
mind the way the meeting has been opened by the 
preceding leaders, and use a different mode. A 
fresh and vigorous opening will mean a meeting of 
vigor, while a formal, hackneyed manner of begin- 
ning will throw a damper on the meeting from the 
start. 

Avoid such phrases as, 4< The meeting is now 
open." These do much to close the meeting instead 
of opening it. Vary the order of opening exercises, 
and draw the members of the society into them as 
far as possible, calling upon this Endeavorer to offer 
the opening prayer, upon another to read the Scrip- 
ture, or, what is better possibly, ask the entire so- 
ciety to repeat passages of Scripture, in harmony 
with the subject of the evening, that occur spontane- 
ously to their memory. Now sing several songs. 
On another occasion open the meeting without any 
singing at all. 

It is a good plan sometimes for the leader to re- 
serve what he has to say upon the subject until the 
conclusion of the meeting. If it has been said 
already, his saying it will merely add emphasis. 

The leader's choice of opening should vary accord- 
ing to the results at which he aims. The opening 
may be made exceedingly informal, if formality is 



74 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

one of the society stumbling-blocks. It will make 
the Bible prominent, or prayer, or singing, or testi- 
mony, according as each of these will best contribute 
to the interests of the meeting. 

The Opening Scripture. — It is not well for the 
leader of a prayer meeting invariably to read himself 
the passage of Scripture given for the evening. With 
this passage the members are all familiar, and in 
order to call fresh attention to it, it is a good plan to 
employ some novel method of reading. Sometimes 
the leader and an Endeavorer in the audience may 
read the passage, alternating verse about. Some- 
times the passage may be divided, the leader reading 
the first three or four verses, then, by pre-arrange- 
ment, some Endeavorer taking it up and reading a 
few verses, and then another Endeavorer, or two 
more, completing the passage. Occasionally the 
leader may read from the authorized version, and 
another Endeavorer follow each verse with the same 
verse as rendered in the revised version. Two En- 
deavorers from the audience may read the verses 
responsively, and the exercise may be varied almost 
without limit. 

Announce the Subject. — I have attended not a 
few prayer meetings whose leader took it for granted 
that every one in the room knew the subject of the 
meeting. It is never well thus to ignore strangers, 
even though every Endeavorer is familiar with the 
theme, which is not always the case. Besides, it 
clarifies the ideas even of those that have already 
thought on the subject to hear it distinctly stated, 



THE LEADER. 75 

and told in several different ways, and this is the 
only businesslike course. 

As your opening selections of song, the Bible read- 
ing, and the prayer, should all be in harmony with 
the topic of the evening, that topic should be an- 
nounced before any of these exercises. At the out- 
set of the leader's little talk on the topic, the theme 
of the evening should once more be stated. It is a 
good plan, as elsewhere suggested, to place the topic 
in distinct letters upon the blackboard, in plain view 
of all. 

Select the Hymns Beforehand. — None but the 
most slovenly leader would think of undertaking the 
management of a Christian Endeavor prayer meeting 
without carefully studying the hymn-book for the 
purpose of finding the most appropriate songs. Bear 
in mind not merely the words of the songs, but the 
fitness of the music. Do not start with a slow and 
melancholy tune, however appropriate the words. 
Do not close, either, with a hymn whose music is 
trivial. It betokens a wise selection of hymns when 
the audience is sent away singing over again in the 
vestibule and on the street the song last used. 

I do not believe in a too labored arrangement of 
the hymns, or in interpolated comments upon them, 
endeavoring to piece them together so as to make a 
musical discourse ; and yet I believe that the hymns 
should all harmonize the one with the other, and if a 
progression of thought can be made apparent with- 
out forced interpretations, so much the better. At 
any rate, the leader should arrange the numbers of 



J 6 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

his hymns in order, and should never trust to hap- 
hazard selection of them. 

Interrupting the Meeting. — It is a better fault 
for a leader to talk too little than too much. Of 
course an experienced leader, by interjecting some 
brief and pertinent commentary on what has just 
been said or read, can give point to a confused testi- 
mony, or make a timid, half-hearted speaker feel 
that he has indeed contributed to the evening in 
some noteworthy sense. On the other hand, there 
is scarcely any impertinence or hindrance to an 
effective meeting so great as a leader that is too 
prominent, that feels it incumbent upon him to make 
comments upon every Bible verse, to add a thought 
to all the testimonies, or even to interpret the mean- 
ing of the hymns. Only once or twice, at the most, 
in the progress of the meeting, should the leader in- 
terrupt at all, and then only when it is a clear case 
and he is sure of his ground. 

Of course this does not apply to occasions when 
it is plainly the leader's duty to say a word, as when 
two or more start to speak or pray at once, causing 
an awkward pause, which the leader should promptly 
break by designating one person to speak, being 
sure on the conclusion of that testimony to call for 
the other. Or, if a meeting is near its close and 
some one inconsiderately calls for the first, second, 
and third verses of some hymn, it would be well for 
the leader to suggest that that hymn be made the 
closing one, and that the remaining time be given to 
prayer and testimony. Such interruptions as these 



THE LEADER. 77 

do not, of course, come under the stricture of the 
preceding remarks. 

To Fill a Pause. — One of the surest marks of a 
skillful leader is his ability to fill a pause in a prayer 
meeting. Sometimes, indeed, a good leader shows 
his wisdom by leaving the pause to take care of it- 
self. That depends on the kind of pause, whether 
it is born of emptiness or of fullness. 

The commonest mode of filling a pause is by sing- 
ing. It is better, however, for the leader to start a 
prayer chain, if this exercise has not already been 
introduced. In each society, too, there will be 
members that are willing to be called upon to offer 
prayer. If a pause occurs, the leader may well say a 
few words reminding the members of the salient 
theme of the evening, and asking some Endeavorer 
to offer prayer along this line. 

If the leader has made no remarks at the opening, 
he may utilize the pause in saying what he has come 
prepared to say. Again, he may start the current of 
thought by asking a few pertinent questions, or by 
reading a very brief quotation. Instead of calling for 
a song, it is almost always better, in case of a pause, 
to request the members to read in concert some ap- 
propriate hymn, whose words, thus vividly pre- 
sented, will inspire fresh testimonies. 

" Let Us Sing No. 24." — Do any of the members 
of your society take part in the prayer meeting 
simply by calling for a hymn? The remedy is in the 
hands of the leader or the prayer-meeting committee. 
At the opening of the meeting let the request be 



78 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

plainly made that in all such cases the member 
read the verse that especially appeals to him, or 
else give some testimony connected with the song 
called for. 

When to Stop. — When the hour is up, and the 
hour has arrived for the evening meeting, — stop ! 

When the attendance is small, and every one pres- 
ent has evidently had his say, — stop / 

When the meeting has been brought, by some 
strong testimony, to a fitting climax that will dwell 
in the memory, if it is near the time to close, intro- 
duce some form of concert testimony that will give 
utterance to those who have not yet taken part, and 
then — stop / 

Without waiting for the pauses to lengthen, — 
stop / 

Without giving a chance for restlessness and 
yawning, — stop / 

Without scolding the members for failing to " oc- 
cupy the time,"' — stop ! 

With no announcement that " there are just four 
minutes more," — which no one will be selfish 
enough to take, — stop / 

With no preliminary nervous looking-up a closing 
hymn, and then looking around to see if any one is 
about to speak, and then looking for a better hymn 
and reconnoitring again, — stop I 

With a few brisk words of encouragement, and a 
few reverent words of prayer, and a verse of a part- 
ing song, with the pastor's benediction, — stop J 

But — if no meeting follows, and the members are 



THE LEADER. 79 

evidently eager to speak and eager to listen, — ■ don't 
stop ! 

If there is one hesitant member, with whom you 
know the prayer-meeting committee is working to 
lead him into fuller expression, and if you think him 
on the point of taking part, though the rest are 
through, wait a minute, — don't stop! 

If the impression of the meeting is deepening, — ■ 
don't stop ! 

If souls are being born into the Kingdom, — don't 
stop ! 

If the visitors are getting restless, but the mem- 
bers are eager and interested, — don't stop ! 

With tact, with common sense, with a prayerful 
desire for the best, hold on, — don't stop! 

Close It Effectively. — If a Christian Endeavor 
prayer meeting is well begun, half of its success is 
assured. If it is well ended, you have the other 
half. Do not close the meeting in a hurry, or, as 
one writer puts it, " like an army beating a retreat. 1 ' 
Give yourself a plenty of time for a word or two at 
the end, driving home the main thought of the even- 
ing ; also for the closing prayer and an appropriate 
closing song. A series of sentence prayers will be 
sure to send the members away with more thought- 
fulness and devotion. 

Do not exhaust in the early part of the evening 
all the novel features you have prepared. Save one 
for a surprise at the close. For example, you may 
have selected some hymn whose beautiful words are 
peculiarly appropriate to enforcing the theme of the 



80 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

evening. Ask the members to rise and read this 
hymn in concert, or alternating with you, verse 
about. Another method of closing is to unroll be- 
fore the society a large sheet of paper upon which 
you have clearly printed some psalm or other pas- 
sage of Scripture that will imprint the evening's 
lesson firmly upon the minds of the society. Hang 
this in clear sight, and call upon all to join you in 
repeating the passage. 

Timing Them. — A Christian Endeavor prayer- 
meeting leader once got several of the Endeavorers 
from the "verse-reader's" class by main force. He 
did it in this way. At the opening of the meeting 
he quietly remarked, "Every member who gives a 
verse in this meeting will be expected to give a one- 
minute comment on it." Out then came the leader's 
watch, and with the first verse quoted the leader 
was ready to time the comment. "Good!" said 
the leader; "the first testimony was only ten sec- 
onds under time." The second testimony, however, 
brought up the society's credit, being twenty seconds 
over time. In this way the ice was broken, and the 
society discovered that it was possible to use the 
tongue as well as the heart in its meetings. 

A Stratagem. — If a leader seriously objects to 
seeing before him many empty front seats, he may 
carry out the stratagem of a leader I once heard 
about, who, when the members failed to come for- 
ward, quietly took up his stand and walked to the 
back of the room, seated himself, and requested 
the audience to turn their chairs around facing him. 



THE LEADER. 8 1 

Thus those that were farthest in the rear found 
themselves occupying front seats ! 

No Back Seats ! — One excellent way out of the 
vacant front-seat dilemma is to arrange the chairs in 
the form of a C. E. monogram, the leader seated 
opposite the opening in the C. Thus all members 
of the society are at almost equal distances from 
him. 

Set Them to Work. — As I have suggested on a 
preceding page, as soon as possible after the new 
members join, before their enthusiasm has time to 
cool, the committee should get them to lead a meet- 
ing. Once settled to the work, they will not need 
any urging. The advantage of this point is appar- 
ent, and constitutes a strong objection to the plan of 
appointing leaders for more than one month ahead. 
Sometimes if the leaders are appointed so long a 
time ahead, it may be understood that a dual leader- 
ship may be established at any time, a new member 
being delegated to assist one of the appointed lead- 
ers in the conduct of the service. 

Call for Them. — It is especially necessary that 
the prayer-meeting committee and the leader should 
co-operate. For instance, if the committee has 
asked several timid members to come prepared to 
offer a sentence prayer, let the leader be told of the 
plan, so that he may call for sentence prayers. 

Notice the Stranger. — Be sure, leader, to get 
something for the stranger into every prayer meeting, 
— that is, if a single stranger is present. Say a 
word of welcome, privately and publicly. Invite all 



82 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

visiting Endeavorers to speak ; much will thus be 
gained for the meeting. In your prayer mention the 
stranger within your gates. Introduce the strangers, 
before the meeting, to some one who will make them 
feel at home during the meeting, and after its close. 

A Word to the Leader. — The members of the 
prayer-meeting committee should make it their espe- 
cial duty to say a kind and appreciative word to the 
leader after the close of the meeting. If he is timid 
and a beginner, he probably feels that he has made 
a failure of the meeting, and a word of praise will 
save him from a world of despondency, and add 
greatly to his future zeal and efficiency. 

A Word of Encouragement. — The leader can do 
much to help the timid members. A word from him 
will assist even those most tied down to the " verse- 
readers 1 class n to escape from their bondage. After 
a verse from the Bible has been timidly quoted, let 
the leader say a few words to bring out the beauty of 
the verse and its appropriateness to the topic of the 
evening. Sometimes the leader may ask a question 
concerning the verse, letting any one answer that 
will. When a sentence or two is hesitatingly added 
to the verse thus given, the leader should not delay 
giving his approval to the thought, if only by a few 
words. Our members will be far more ready to 
''take the next step" if the step they have already 
taken meets with a word of praise. 



PRAYER IN THE MEETINGS. 8$ 



CHAPTER VII. 

PRAYER IN THE MEETINGS. 

A Good Prayer. — Many of our Endeavorers are 
learning what it is, and are putting that knowledge 
in practice for the good of their fellow members. 
Many more need to learn. 

In the first place, a good prayer is the expression 
of one's real being. It never springs from the brain 
merely, but from the life. The one who is praying 
a good prayer never thinks what others are thinking 
about his prayer. He forgets that others are listen- 
ing, and remembers only that he is talking with God. 

A good prayer, therefore, simply asks for things 
the one who prays eagerly desires, confesses things 
for which he is truly sorrowful, or praises God for 
things for which he is sincerely grateful. The peti- 
tion, confession, and gratitude will be in the prayer 
solely because they have first been in the life. 

It follows, of course, that a good prayer will be 
very simple. When one asks a favor of one very 
dear to him, he does not use long sentences or long 
words. When one confesses a sin to men, he puts 
it as concisely as possible. When one says, *' Thank 
you,' 1 to a friend, it is not with a set speech. Pom- 
pous prayers, wordy prayers, affected prayers, are 
insincere prayers. 



84 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

If your heart is really touched by any need or sor- 
row of your brothers, you can make a good prayer. 
If you are truly striving to rid yourself of any sin, you 
can make a good prayer. If your heart is running 
over with gratitude to God for any blessing, you can 
make a good prayer. 

It may not be more than a sentence long. It may 
be spoken in a voice so low as to be heard only a 
few feet away, and so trembling as to be unintelli- 
gible to those who hear, but it will be a good prayer. 
God owns it, and human souls will own it, too. 

And if you can make a good ft?' ay er, it is your duty 
to do so. 

An Opening Prayer. — Many societies will find it 
helpful if the members should commit to memory 
some such prayer as the following, which is regularly 
repeated in concert by the members of a certain 
Australian society at the opening of every Christian 
Endeavor meeting : 

" Heavenly Father, draw near to us as w r e now 
draw near to thee. Mercifully grant that thy Holy 
Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts, 
and renew us in the spirit of our minds. Deliver us 
from all sloth in thy work, all coldness in thy cause, 
and grant that by looking unto thee we may rekindle 
our love, and by waiting upon thee may renew our 
strength, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen." 

Not a few of the psalms will furnish appropriate 
passages for the introduction of the service. 

A Prayer Meeting. — A meeting entirely devoted 
to prayer with the exception of singing, the songs 



PRAYER IN THE MEETINGS. 85 

themselves being prayer songs, will do much to 
bring the society into the spirit of prayer, and intro- 
duce more prayers into the coming meetings. 

It must be understood beforehand that the one 
method of participation in this meeting will be by 
prayer. Sentence prayers should be called for several 
times, and definite topics of prayer should be pro- 
posed at different times in the evening, such as 
prayer for associate members, for the church and its 
work, for the pastor, for missions, for the temper- 
ance cause, for the Sunday school, for the Christian 
Endeavor committees. 

The concert repetition of prayers from the Bible 
that may be written on the blackboard or printed on 
large sheets of manilla paper will be helpful, as will 
also be the reading in concert of some prayer poem 
or hymn. Of course the members of the society will 
feel free to take part more than once if there is 
opportunity. 

Two Good Plans. — An excellent way to get mem- 
bers to take part in prayer is to give them slips of 
paper bearing appropriate topics for prayer, and ask 
the member to make use of them. Another way is 
to suggest that the member select a verse of Scrip- 
ture, repeat it, and then try to follow it with a brief 
prayer suggested by the quotation. It is a good 
plan for those who find difficulty in praying in public 
always to pray out loud when they pray at home. 

Praying a Psalm. — Endeavorers frequently in 
their meetings repeat psalms in concert, or sing 
psalms, chanting them or otherwise ; but why should 



86 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

they not use the prayer psalms as their own prayers ? 
There are several ways of doing this. One of the 
best is to get the members to commit to memory 
these priceless portions of- Scripture. In that case, 
all heads can be bowed and the psalm repeated in 
concert. 

Another method requires all members to come to 
the meeting with copies of the Bible. This is emi- 
nently desirable for many other reasons. Opening 
their Bibles to the prayer psalm, let all the Endeav- 
orers kneel and read the psalm in concert. Still 
another method prescribes that, while the members 
are kneeling, the Endeavorers of a certain row 
shall read the psalm aloud, taking it verse about, 
in order. 

What is a Chain Prayer? — Here is a definition 
of a chain prayer given by an Australian paper. Few 
of our societies can come up to its requirements, and 
yet it is an admirable definition to work toward : 
" A chain prayer is one in which every active mem- 
ber of the society present takes part. It is started by 
the leader, taken up by the next, and so on around, 
no one concluding with " for Chrises sake, Amen, 1 ' 
until it reaches the leader again, who thus closes it. 
Each petition should be but a sentence, and an en- 
deavor should be made to make it harmonize with 
the others, and embody the special subject of the 
chain prayer, which should never be but for some 
specific and definite thing. Now, then, try again." 

Special Subjects. — When you have sentence pray- 
ers in your society you will find it exceedingly help- 



PRAYER IN THE MEETINGS. 87 

ful to propose definite subjects for prayer, and these 
subjects may well be connected with the theme of 
the evening or with some testimony that has im- 
mediately preceded. 

Silent Prayer. — One of the most useful exercises 
of the prayer meeting is silent prayer. To render 
it helpful, however, it should be introduced, not in 
a mechanical, but in a very appropriate, way. It 
should come at the climax of the meeting, and 
should emphasize the principal point of the even- 
ing^ discussion. 

The leader should always propose some theme for 
the silent prayer, applying the chief thought of the 
evening to the consciences and individual lives of 
those before him. If, for example, the meeting has 
been one of thanksgiving, during a moment of silent 
prayer at the close let the Endeavorers give thanks 
to God for some definite blessings of their lives. If 
the meeting has taken an evangelistic turn, has been 
directed perhaps to the winning of the associate 
members and the non-Christians, during a moment's 
silent prayer let all Christian hearts rise in earnest 
petition for the salvation of the souls that are dear to 
them, and while all heads are bowed, let an oppor- 
tunity be given for any to rise that may wish to sig- 
nify their desire to enter upon the Christian life. 

It is a common mistake to close too abruptly this 
season of silent prayer. A full minute is none too 
long. Often the leader breaks the silent prayer 
before many in the audience have fairly begun to 
pray. It is customary to request some Endeavorer 



88 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

to close the silent prayer with a few words of vocal 
prayer, and careful selection should be made of the 
person who is to take up the responsible task of put- 
ting into words and carrying to a higher level the 
secret petitions of so many. 

Kneeling in Prayer. — Some societies have the 
custom of kneeling while sentence prayers or long 
prayers are being offered. This is exceedingly help- 
ful, at least for occasional use. It will be found that 
many will take part in public prayer when they are 
kneeling that would not under other circumstances. 
It is an excellent plan, before the members rise from 
their knees, to sing softly some verse of a prayer 
hymn, such as " Nearer my God to thee," or " Take 
my life, and let it be Consecrated, Lord, to thee." 

Concerted Prayer. — It will be helpful if all mem- 
bers of the prayer-meeting committee agree, no mat- 
ter where they are or what they may be doing, to 
offer concerted prayer, say at the noon hour, for the 
society to which they belong, and for the special 
work their committee is endeavoring to do. 

Pray for Each. — Definite prayer is the only 
prayer that has power. It is a good thing for the 
prayer-meeting committee to meet regularly for the 
purpose of prayer for the members of the society by 
name, with a roll of the society open before them. 
Prayer should be offered by each person in turn, 
according to the needs of that particular person. 

Prayer Circle. — Christ's promise regarding the 
two or three met together in his name may be 
claimed without a formal meeting, bv what has been 



PRAYER IN THE MEETINGS. 89 

termed a " prayer circle." This consists of three or 
more Endeavorers who agree to pray for some com- 
mon purpose. It may be for the salvation of some 
mutual friend. Whatever it is, the subject of the 
prayer is kept a secret. A fixed time each day is set 
for the prayer, which is offered wherever the Endeav- 
orers may happen to be, and until the prayer is an- 
swered the Endeavorers constantly raise it. When 
their petition is granted, report is made to the so- 
ciety. No names are mentioned, unless such men- 
tion is thought best for some special reason. The 
society is simply asked to join with the prayer circle 
in thanksgiving for another answered prayer. 

Prayer Trios. — If there are those in the society 
that find it difficult to pray in Christian Endeavor 
meetings, the committee may form prayer trios. The 
members of these agree to pray consecutively in the 
coming meeting. The central one of each trio is to 
be a member that has never before prayed in public. 
The prayers that come before and after his should 
of course be brief and simple, so as to give him 
confidence. 

A Prayer Class. — Some pastors organize among 
their Endeavorers what are called prayer classes, — 
little meetings for the gaining of fervency and ease 
in public prayer. One pastor hung up in the place 
where this class met, a placard bearing these 
words : 

Heavenly Father, 
Teach us to pray. 
For Christ's sake. Amen. 



go PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

Those who wished to learn to pray were asked to 
use the first two and the last lines of the placard, 
supplying a sentence or two in the middle. 

A Week of Prayer. — I have heard of a society 
whose meetings were languishing, that adopted the 
wise and vigorous method of holding a week of 
prayer regarding the matter. The society met every 
night, and engaged in earnest prayer and consulta- 
tion for the sole purpose of advancing their spiritual 
life. 

The Prayer Chain. — The World's Christian En- 
deavor Prayer Chain should be utilized in our meet- 
ings, even though not all the members of the society 
may be links of the chain. The general theme of 
prayer for the month should be introduced in each 
meeting, and sometimes it will add to the spiritual 
tone of the meeting if some Endeavorer reads the 
special requests for prayer for the week and if these 
are remembered in brief sentence prayers by the 
members. The links of the Prayer Chain in your 
society may constitute themselves an informal com- 
mittee to carry out these suggestions. 

Birthday Prayers. — Young People's Christian 
Endeavor societies might make very much more than 
is made of the birthdays of their members. The 
Juniors in this matter are far ahead of their seniors. 
It would not be out of the way to appoint a birthday 
committee, that should keep on record all the birth- 
days of all the members of the society. At each 
meeting this committee should announce the birth- 
days which will fall during the coming week, and 



PRAYER IN THE MEETINGS. 9 1 

during that week those members are especially re- 
membered in prayer by all the society. If it is not 
thought best to appoint this birthday committee, 
this work may be assumed by the prayer-meeting 
committee. 

A Petition Book. — Some societies have found it 
an advantage to open a petition book, accessible to 
all members of the society. On one page will be 
entered the various prayers the members of the so- 
ciety are especially anxious to have answered, and 
on the opposite page a space is left vacant for a state- 
ment in regard to the answer, when it comes, and 
how. Such a book as this, though it may at first 
sight seem mechanical, has furnished convincing 
proof that God does hear and answer prayer. 



92 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

USING THE BIBLE. 

Bring Your Bibles. — A good work for the prayer- 
meeting committee to undertake will be to get the 
Endeavorers to make it a practice to bring their Bi- 
bles to the prayer meeting. Frequently in the pro- 
gress of the meeting there are opportunities for the 
recitation of appropriate Scripture. This your mem- 
ories may not retain, but if you have your Bibles, 
you can turn to them and use them. 

Concert and responsive readings from the Bible 
would become much more general if members would 
bring their Bibles. Such readings are frequently 
proposed in the published commentaries on the topic, 
and they are always very helpful. 

Endeavorers should enjoy the companionship of 
the Book, and should be glad to have it with them, 
even if they do not open it. A few moments of 
Bible-reading while we are waiting for the meeting 
to begin is the best preparation for the meeting. 

Besides, in the course of the meeting, helpful com- 
ments on Bible passages will be given. If the En- 
deavorers know how to mark their Bibles wisely, 
they will want them at hand to mark. And for 
the final reason, the Bible carried along the street 
is a sort of Christian banner, and every Christian 



USING THE BIBLE. 93 

Endeavorer should wish to show his colors. In this 
commendable practice of carrying the Bible to the 
prayer meeting the prayer-meeting committee should 
take the lead, and urge it by precept as well, until 
the other members have taken up the custom. 

Name the Reference. — One method of alluring 
Endeavorers from the verse-readers' class is to urge 
them to name the reference before they repeat it. It 
adds much to the interest of a Bible quotation to 
know who said it and from what part of the Bible it 
comes. Besides, this will be a step in the direction 
of more original participation. 

A Chain of Verses. — The prayer-meeting com- 
mittee will obtain a large number of slips of writing 
paper of different colors, and will place upon each 
a Bible reference. These are to be given to the 
Endeavorers to take home. Each is to find his 
verse, write it upon the slip, commit it to memory, 
and bring the slip to the next meeting. 

At this meeting all the members rise in turn, and 
read — or better, recite — their verses. They then 
give the slip of paper to the chairman of the prayer- 
meeting committee or to the leader, who forms them 
into a chain. This chain, being sent to a hospital, 
will be enjoyed by the patients. 

An Initial Meeting. — Ask the members to choose 
Bible texts beginning with the initials of their names, 
and repeat them at the next meeting, giving the 
reasons why they selected those texts, and why they 
should like to have them for the mottoes of their 
lives. 



94 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

Bringing in the Sunday-school Lesson. — For a 

good many years, the prayer-meeting topics have 
been in line with the Sunday-school lessons. The 
Christian Endeavor topics are never the same as 
those of the Sunday school, but are usually derived 
from them. This fact makes it especially fitting that 
the Christian Endeavor prayer meeting should take 
thought regarding the Sunday-school lesson that 
usually precedes it. 

One of the best ways of taking part in the Chris- 
tian Endeavor meeting is to speak of the thought 
that has most impressed one in the Sunday-school 
class discussions. This effects a double end : it 
advertises the Sunday school and encourages the 
teachers, and at the same time it enriches the Chris- 
tian Endeavor prayer meeting. The prayer-meeting 
committee should occasionally advise the leader to 
call for these reminiscences of the Sunday-school 
lesson. Some may think that this way of participat- 
ing in the prayer meeting will cause it to become 
monotonous, and to seem a mere repetition of the 
Sunday school ; but this is far from being the case. 
The truths taught in the Sunday school are fixed 
upon the memory, and at the same time new light is 
thrown upon them. 

Bible Characters. — An interesting prayer meet- 
ing is one whose central idea is Bible characters. 
One Endeavorer, for instance, may read a paper 
on Miriam or Ruth, a second may treat Balaam or 
Peter, a third may give an essay on Timothy as a 
Christian Endeavor worker, and so on. 



USING THE BIBLE. 95 

A Psalm at the Start. — No Christian Endeavor 
society is well equipped for its work unless the 
memories of its members contain a repertoire of 
the psalms, especially those most suited to respon- 
sive exercises. One of the best ways of opening a 
prayer meeting is by the concert repetition of one of 
these psalms. This mode of opening always gives 
a tone of spirituality to the meeting. Frequently, 
too, such psalms make a most fitting close for the 
meeting. 

A Psalm Meeting. — Once a year an entire meet- 
ing might well be devoted to the psalms. Following 
any good commentary on the psalms, assign to dif- 
ferent members different classes of these inspired 
hymns, as, to one the psalms of petition, to another 
those of praise, to another the Messianic psalms, to 
a fifth the imprecatory psalms. Psalms with special 
histories, connected with prominent events in the 
life of David or of the nation, should be assigned to 
separate members. 

One Endeavorer might speak of the psalms that 
have had important influence upon the great men of 
the earth at the different crises of their history. An- 
other might show how often the psalms are quoted 
in the New Testament. Another might show the 
influence of the psalms on our modern hymns, many 
of which are simply paraphrases. 

Of course the singing of the psalms and the con- 
cert repetition of them from memory or otherwise 
will form one of the principal features of the even- 
ing. The members may also be asked to name their 



O/J PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

favorite psalms, telling why they are especially dear 
to them. 

A Bible-Reading. — A capital plan to get the mem- 
bers well started in a meeting is this : Let the leader 
at the opening announce rapidly the places of half a 
dozen texts. As each reference is announced let 
some Endeavorer repeat it after the leader, thus vol- 
unteering to look up the passage in the Bible. These 
members will hold themselves ready to read the 
passages when the reader comes to need them in 
the course of his remarks. 

The Opening Bible-Reading. — Prayer-meeting 
leaders should not uniformly read, themselves, the 
Bible passage selected as basis for the thought of the 
evening. Sometimes let them call upon the mem- 
bers to repeat Bible verses bearing upon the subject, 
— this to take the place of the selection for the even- 
ing. Sometimes one of the psalms may be repeated 
in concert, or the leader and society may alternate, 
verse about ; or the psalm may be repeated by the 
young men and the young women of the audience, 
they alternating the verses. 

Sometimes the introductory passage may be writ- 
ten upon a blackboard, or a large sheet of paper, so 
plainly that the audience can read it and repeat it 
together. Many of the Scripture selections for the 
meetings are suitable for recitations, and a good 
speaker, other than the leader, should be instructed 
beforehand to commit them to memory and repeat 
them, coming in front of the society; or the leader 
himself may repeat the introductory Scripture. 



USING THE BIBLE. 97 

Where the authorized and the revised versions of 
the passage for the evening vary conspicuously, it 
will be interesting for the leader to read one verse in 
the authorized version, while another Endeavorer 
follows with the same verse from the revised version, 
and so on with the rest of the selection. 

Bible Reference Meetings. — To carry on a meet- 
ing of this character, get the members each of them 
to select a passage from the Bible, preferably one 
that is not in common use, that illustrates the topic 
of the evening. These references, written on slips 
of paper, are to be handed to the prayer-meeting 
committee several days before the meeting. The 
committee arranges them according to a plan the 
leader will form, and at the opening of the meeting 
the slips are handed out to the members, numbered. 
They are to be read in the order of the numbers, the 
leader joining them together by helpful remarks. In 
the latter service he may be assisted by some of the 
Endeavorers. 

A Bible Meeting. — For this meeting let the leader 
select a certain chapter of the Bible and make the 
Endeavorers promise to read this chapter during the 
coming week, and present at the next meeting, each 
one, some thought suggested by the chapter. A 
similar meeting might well be built up on the daily 
readings of the week. 

A Favorite Text Meeting. — Ask the members 
one week beforehand to come prepared at the next 
meeting to give, each of them, his favorite Bible text, 
combining the recitation of it with a few words 



98 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

telling why it is especially precious to him. The 
pastor should be notified of the plan beforehand, and 
should be present to speak at the close of the meet- 
ing upon the lessons that should be brought out. 
He will especially notice what texts are the favorites 
of the greatest number, as many will doubtless light 
upon the same passages. 

Bible-Reading. — The prayer meetings are not to 
vie with the Sunday school in the matter of Bible 
study, and yet they can be exceedingly helpful in 
this line, and the prayer-meeting committee may 
direct such studies. For one thing, insist upon the 
daily readings. Call for reports occasionally, en- 
deavoring to find out how many of the members are 
making actual daily use of these readings. Once in 
a while appoint six members to speak at the next 
meeting, taking thoughts, each of them, from the 
daily reading of one of the days. 

Sometimes let the prayer-meeting committee select 
a chapter of the Bible especially full of thoughts re- 
garding the coming topic, and request each member 
of the society to read this chapter before the next 
meeting. 

It may be thought advisable, in some societies, to 
enter upon more systematic work. One society I 
have heard of appoints for each day of the week one 
chapter in the Old, and one in the New, Testament, 
and calls for little talks at the weekly meetings, 
based upon these chapters. 

If this is not needed, it is well sometimes to an- 
nounce special Bible-readings, whose fruits are to be 



USING THE BIBLE. 99 

gathered up in the coming prayer meeting. During 
one week, for example, the members might be asked 
to read the accounts of all of Christ's healings of the 
blind, or of the three cases in which Christ raised 
people from death, or the whole of the Sermon on 
the Mount, or all of Solomon's proverbs regarding 
wisdom, or the entire book of Ecclesiastes. or the 
Messianic prophecies of Isaiah, or the seven most 
prominent parables of Christ's, or the last three 
chapters of Revelation. A pleasant exercise would 
be a ten minutes 1 review of this Bible-reading, chiefly 
in the form of questions presented to the society by 
a bright speaker. 

Special Bible Study. — Not for a regular, but for 
an occasional, feature of the work, it would help the 
society and add to the prayer meeting if the members 
should meet every week for an hour, and study the 
Bible under the lead of some wide-awake Bible stu- 
dent, having in special view the needs of the Christian 
Endeavor society. 

The best plan would be to study the Bible topic- 
ally, a course not pursued by the Sunday school. In 
one meeting, for example, the Endeavorers might 
collate Bible passages upon prayer, and try to find 
out what the Bible doctrine regarding prayer really is. 
Sin, salvation, happiness, forgiveness, are samples 
of the topics that might be discussed. Such a class 
as this would speedily lead to a more frequent and 
wise use of the Bible in the Christian Endeavor 
prayer meeting. 



IOO PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 



CHAPTER IX. 

EMPHASIZE THE PLEDGE. 

A Special Pledge. — One prayer-meeting commit- 
tee of which I have heard is so firm a believer in 
pledges, and so deeply conscious of the requirements 
of its own work, that its members take a special ad- 
ditional pledge of their own. They promise in this 
pledge to make the most of their opportunities for 
deepening the spiritual life of every member placed 
in their charge, and to do the best they can for the 
improvement of the weekly prayer meeting of the 
society. 

A Pledge Meeting. — Meetings based on the 
Christian Endeavor pledge should be held at least 
once a year, and the uniform topics always provide 
for such a meeting. It is a good plan to divide the 
pledge into sections, appointing one member of the 
society to treat each section. At this meeting, of 
course, the pledge should be repeated in concert. 
A versified form of the pledge may be sung. The 
United Society of Christian Endeavor furnishes an 
interesting Bible-reading on the pledge. A chart 
containing some novel arrangement of the pledge 
might be placed before the society ; some such ar- 
rangement, for instance, as the following, prepared 
by Rev. W. H. G. Temple: 



EMPHASIZE THE PLEDGE. 101 



OUR PLEDGE. 

The distinctive feature of the Christian Endeavor 

movement, to which we have all given our 

loyal assent, and by which we 

have promised to 

stand, 

PROVIDES FOR 

DAILY DEVOTION. 

I promise ... to pray and read the Bible every 

day. 

WEEKLY TESTIMONY. 

To be present at and to take some part, aside from 

singing, in every Christian Endeavor 

prayer meeting. 
MONTHLY CONSECRATION. 
And, if obliged to be absent from the monthly con- 
secration meeting, to send, if possible, at least 
a verse of Scripture to be read in re- 
sponse to my name at the 
roll-call. 
CONSTANT LOYALTY TO CHURCH 
AND CAUSE. 
To do my duty, support, and attend regularly the 
Sunday and midweek services 
of my church. 
DOING ALL 
In the name and strength of . . . 

. . . the Lord Jesus Christ. 
BY FAITH. AMEN. 



A pledge question-box would furnish an interest- 
ing feature of the evening. To this question-box 
the members will contribute questions regarding the 



102 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

difficulties each has met in attempting to keep the 
pledge. The leader will answer some of the ques- 
tions himself, and refer others for answer to the 
pastor and the more shrewd among the Endeavorers. 

A pledge open parliament might well be carried 
on, with such a topic as, " How does the pledge 
help you in your daily living? " or, " What part of 
the pledge do you find most difficult to keep, and 
why?" or, " Why should every Christian be willing 
to take the Christian Endeavor pledge? " A pledge 
meeting should by no means lack the element of 
prayer, for we greatly need wisdom to teach us all 
that the pledge implies, and strength to accomplish 
the things we have pledged ourselves to do. 

Records of Participation. — Few methods of spur- 
ring a lagging society are better than the following : 
Let the prayer-meeting committee keep a record 
every week for a month of the mode which each 
Endeavorer takes of participating in the meetings. 
At the end of the month, let a copy of his record be 
sent to each member, while the record as a whole 
is read before the society, names, of course, being 
omitted. If this is kept up for several months in 
succession, improvements being commended publicly 
and privately, with here and there a word of exhorta- 
tion, the gain will be immediate and marked. It 
will not be necessary to follow this plan indefinitely. 

Prayer-meeting Committee Blanks. — The fol- 
lowing prayer-meeting committee blank is used by a 
society in Washington, D.C. The tally is not kept 
by names. The members of the committee take 



EMPHASIZE THE PLEDGE. 103 

turns in filling out the weekly report. These reports 
are preserved, and serve as material for the monthly 
and term reports of the committee. 

REPORT OF PRAYER-MEETING COMMITTEE. 

For July 10, 1892. 

{Active, 13 
Associate, 9 
Visiting, 11 

PERSONS PARTICIPATING. 



Active 


//X//////X///// 


Members 


= 


*5 


Associate 


//////// 


Members 


= 


8 


Others 


/ 


1 



" X" means participating by proxy. Total, 24 

CARLE TON E. SNELL, 

Member of the Prayer-Meeting Committee. 

It will even prove stimulating to keep in the same 
way a separate report for each person. These re- 
ports should not, of course, be made public, but 
copies of them should be handed to each member. 
At the close of the month they will show not only 
how many times he has been present and taken part, 
but in what way he has taken part. The committee, 
for example, might use the letter T for " testimony, " 



104 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

B for " Bible verses," P for " prayer," etc. Such a 
definite account would be of great use to the commit- 
tee in enabling them to lay their hands upon the 
weak spots in the society. 

A Spur. — The best of societies occasionally be- 
comes sluggish, and needs a reminder of the pledge 
the members have taken, and a stimulus to renewed 
exertions. Some such circular as the following, 
whose author is Rev. W. H. G. Temple, if prepared 
to meet the special need of the society and scattered 
broadcast among the members by print or mani- 
folder, could hardly help stirring them up to fresh 
energy and zeal. 

Dear Endeavorer : With what spirit do you propose to 
begin this five months' work in our society? Ought we 
not individually to take an inventory of our motives, and 
find out just where we stand? Let us ask ourselves these 
questions : 

1. Do w r e intend conscientiously to keep our pledge? 

2. Do we intend to do just enough to clear ourselves 
from condemnation, or do we propose to start out to he 
true-hearted and whole-hearted? 

3. Can we be counted on to make our committees effi- 
cient, and to personally show constant growth in service? 

4. Are we willing to commit ourselves to the very best 
answers w 7 e can give to these questions? 

. Please remember that the work of your prayer-meeting 
committee will be an utter failure without God's blessing 
and your individual support. We promise our most en- 
thusiastic efforts, if you will stand by us. In order to get 
an expression of your willingness to co-operate, we ask 



EMPHASIZE THE PLEDGE. 105 

you to sign and detach the subjoining coupon, and return 
the same promptly to us. 

Enclosed please find booklet containing our topics and 
daily readings, 

Yours affectionately, 

for Christ and the church, 
The Prayer-Meeting Committee. 



Detach, and return , signed, to the prayer-meeting com- 
mittee. 

I hereby confirm my loyalty to our Christian Endeavor 
pledge, and promise to do all I can, whether on a commit- 
tee or not, to advance the interests of our society during 
the next five months. 



To Keep the Pledge. — Whenever the prayer- 
meeting committee takes up some special plan for 
the meeting, great care should be taken that the 
members have some opportunity to keep their pledge 
by taking part in concert. In this way the pledge 
idea is emphasized, and the concert feature may at 
the same time be made one of the most helpful and 
inspiring features of the evening. 

For instance, at the opening of a question-box 
meeting of a certain society the audience were re- 
quested to rise and to read responsively with the 
leader that well-known question hymn, "Art thou 
weary, art thou languid? 1 '' the leader repeating the 
first two lines of each stanza and the audience re- 
peating in concert the answer, — the second two 



106 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

lines. This exercise was appropriately closed by 
the repetition of a prayer-hymn in the same hymn- 
book, in which the leader and audience joined. 

Instead of this hymn exercise it is well occasion- 
ally to have the audience repeat some passage of 
Scripture that all may be supposed to know, such as 
the Beatitudes, the Lord's Prayer, a portion of the 
first chapter of John, the twenty-third, forty-second, 
fifty-first, thirty-fourth, twenty-fourth or nineteenth 
psalm. If the leader wishes to use some unfamiliar 
passage of Scripture, a copy of it should be placed 
before the audience, written plainly on a blackboard 
or on a large sheet of manilla paper. 



THE MUSIC. 107 



CHAPTER X. 

THE MUSIC. 



Monotony in Opening. — Many Christian En- 
deavor societies make the mistake of opening their 
meetings always in the same way. This strikes the 
keynote of monotony at the very beginning. If a 
novel introduction is planned, the meeting is not 
likely to run in the old ruts. Especially is this 
warning needed with reference to the opening song 
service. 

It is an admirable plan, once in a while, to sing at 
the opening five or six songs, until the Endeavorers 
have reached a high pitch of spiritual enthusiasm 
and devotion. If this plan, however, is uniformly 
pursued, it will ultimately fail of the desired effect. 
More than that, the members will come to think that 
the meeting is not begun until the close of the song 
service, and with this plea will excuse themselves 
for frequent tardiness. One of the very best intro- 
ductions to a Christian Endeavor meeting is a season 
of prayer without any singing at all, and this mode 
of introduction should be used quite as frequently as 
the introductory praise service. 

The Organist. — I often think that an organist 
can do more for the success of the prayer-meeting 
than the leader himself. Spirited, sympathetic play- 



108 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

ing leads to singing of the same kind. The model 
organist will never race ahead of the audience, no 
matter how pokily they sing, but will gradually lead 
them to greater promptness. The model organist 
will play a prelude for only the most unfamiliar 
hymns. All the familiar hymns will be sung to the 
chord alone. There will be, of course, no interludes 
between the verses. They are an impertinence. 

The model organist will keep her seat at the in- 
strument during the meeting, that no time may be 
lost after a hymn is called for. She will pay strict 
attention to the number of the hymn and the num- 
ber of the verses requested. If the announcement is 
made in a low voice, she will not guess at the num- 
ber, but call for a repetition of the announcement. 

The work of organist is arduous, and if your so- 
ciety possesses more than one competent person, you 
should by all means arrange for rotation in office. 
In my own society six take turns at this pleasant 
task. 

A Hymn Leader. — If your society has timid 
members, — and what society has not? — you may 
find it a good plan to accustom them to leadership 
by appointing for each meeting a hymn leader, 
whose sole work will be the selection of hymns and 
the announcement of them. He will sit facing the 
society, with the other leader. 

Rapid Singing. — American congregational sing- 
ing, for some reason or other, is noted for its slow- 
ness. That it is too slow, you can easily convince 
yourself by timing the singing of a stanza, and then 



THE MUSIC. 109 

trying to read the same stanza in the same time. 
The necessary drawing out of the words would ef- 
fectually hide whatever meaning they might other- 
wise convey. We have been droning out our hymns 
for so long that the method has almost become sa- 
cred to our minds, and a sense of levity attaches itself 
to a more rational mode of singing. 

Nevertheless, our societies will find it very advan- 
tageous if they can increase the rapidity of their sing- 
ing to such a degree that the thought of the hymns 
can be gathered much as if the hymn were read. 
An Australian audience would sing four hymns while 
an American audience is singing one, and the spirit 
and effectiveness of their singing, the unanimity with 
which their congregations change the volume from 
soft to loud or the reverse, and the rapidity from fast 
to slow or from slow to rapid, are proofs of the value 
of a more brisk rendition of gospel hymns. 

Reading Hymns. — The custom is extending of 
reading hymns occasionally in concert, instead of 
singing them. It is a custom greatly to be com- 
mended. In this way a hymn takes less time than 
if it were sung, and the thought of the hymn is 
brought out as, in our ordinary way of singing, it 
never is. A series of hymns thus read in concert 
will prove a very effective exercise. 

Hymns Impromptu. — I know of nothing, except 
chain prayers, that will add more to the zest of a • 
meeting than the impromptu starting of hymns with- 
out any announcement whatever. In every society, 
with a little practice and determination, this great 



IIO PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

aid to a spiritual meeting can be obtained. If you 
have no one person that is willing to undertake the 
work, you can easily find two that will sit together 
and start the hymns impromptu, supporting one 
another. 

A Hymn a Month. — Your society should adopt 
a society hymn, expressive of the particular aims of 
your work. In addition to this, many societies have 
found it a pleasant custom to commit to memory one 
hymn a month. Our memories contain too few 
hymns. Many are familiar to us to the extent of 
their first stanza, but with the second we stumble, 
and with the third we are utterly at a loss. These 
memory hymns are to be introduced at each meet- 
ing, and are to be sung without the book. 

Explore the Hymn-Books. — Our hymn-books are 
not half used. If you have no music committee, the 
prayer-meeting committee should make it its busi- 
ness to go over all the songs in your hymn-book and 
introduce the society to those that are unfamiliar, at 
the first convenient opportunity. For this purpose, 
some societies permit the prayer-meeting or the mu- 
sic committee to select the hymns. Otherwise, these 
committees should request the leader to call for the 
hymns they wish to introduce. 

Choir Testimony. — If your society has that use- 
ful adjunct, a Christian Endeavor choir, occasionally 
get them to give united testimony, by rising and 
singing two or three verses of some appropriate 
hymn. After this, each one will give his thoughts 
on the subject of the hymn. Close the testimony by 



THE MUSIC. Ill 

singing together the last verse of the hymn. .If you 
have no choir, these exercises may be carried out by 
half a dozen picked Endeavorers. 

A Hymn Prayer Meeting. — A great variety of 
hymn prayer meetings is possible. The meeting 
may be based upon the life and writings of a single 
author. An evening with Fanny Crosby, or with 
Frances Ridley Havergal, or Watts, or Charles Wes- 
ley, could not fail to be filled with the greatest profit 
and delight. The noble lives of these Christian 
poets, and the exalted sentiments of their works, 
would furnish a rich evening. 

Some one should read a brief biography of the 
life of the writer, or it may be divided into several 
portions, each assigned to one Endeavorer. Inter- 
spersed among the exercises of the evening should 
be the most important hymns written by the author. 
There should be prayers and testimonies based upon 
these hymns, or upon any others the Endeavorers 
may wish to speak about. 

A general hymn meeting, in which each Endeav- 
orer tells his favorite hymn, or gives some incidents 
regarding the hymn and the good it has done in ex- 
ceptional circumstances, is another admirable plan. 
Such books as Hezekiah Butterwortlvs " Story of 
the Hymns," and Dr. Robinson's " Annotations on 
Popular Hymns," would be of the greatest assistance 
in planning a meeting of this character. 

A Hymn Service. — The week before, present to 
each Endeavorer a slip of paper containing the fol- 
lowing questions, with blanks for written replies : 



112 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

" Name your favorite hymn." 
"Why do you like it?" 
" How has it helped you? " 

" What can you tell about the author and the history of 
the hymn? " 

Let it be understood that these questions may be 
answered wholly or in part ; that the answers may 
be read by the writers or handed to the leader of the 
meeting for him to read ; and that, if the members 
desire, they may give their answers orally instead of 
writing them. Occasionally in the course of the 
meeting let the hymns be sung after they are men- 
tioned by the participants. At the close of the 
meeting have the leader, or some ready speaker, 
sum up the entire meeting in its prominent features, 
especially recounting the hymns that have most fre- 
quently been mentioned as helpful, and the reasons 
for the helpfulness of hymns that have most often 
been named. 

A Few More Points. — Many hymns, especially 
those that are in the form of prayers, should be sung 
with bowed heads. — A meeting, possibly once a 
year, may be devoted to the hymn-book, singing it 
through for the purpose of becoming familiar with 
the hymns less commonly used. If your song book 
has not a topical index, it will greatly add to your 
efficiency as a prayer-meeting worker if you make 
one for yourself, pasting it in your own book, and 
giving copies of it to others. — If your music com- 
mittee organizes a Christian Endeavor choir, the 
shoir should part of the time sit together in the 



THE MUSIC. 113 

front of the audience, and part of the time its mem- 
bers should be scattered throughout the room. — It 
is a pleasant plan occasionally at the opening of 
the meeting to mingle song with the reading of the 
Scripture, a few verses being followed by an appro- 
priate hymn, after which a few more verses are read 
and another hymn is sung, and so on. — If you want 
to emphasize a hymn, have the audience rise while 
singing it. Any audience will sing better standing. 
— Another way to emphasize a song is to ask the 
members, after they have sung a stanza, to read 
it together in concert, or to sing it once more, or to 
sing the chorus a second time. The second singing 
will always be more hearty than the first. — A good 
way to introduce novelty into the singing of a hymn 
is to ask for a reading of the verses by the mem- 
bers, each verse being read by a different member 
before it is sung. — Occasionally let the leader call 
for the singing of a hymn, the verses in unison and 
the chorus in parts. Hymns of moderate range are 
almost always more effective when sung in unison. — 
Sometimes it is well to ask the young women of the 
society to sing one verse, the young men the next; or 
the young women the stanzas, the young men join- 
ing in the chorus ; or the audience may be divided, 
the left section singing one stanza, the right the sec- 
ond, and all joining in the third. Wherever the 
hymn consists of question and answer, or is divided 
in similarly suggestive ways, the leader should get 
different portions of the audience to sing these dif- 
ferent parts. 



114 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 



CHAPTER XI. 

POINTS FOR GOOD MEETINGS. 

Standing While Speaking. — Few things will 
help a prayer meeting more than the habit of stand- 
ing while taking part in the meeting, whether to 
pray or to testify. The prayer-meeting committee 
should, whenever opportunity offers, urge this cus- 
tom upon the society. The timid will object to it, 
but will find, on trying it, that standing is one of the 
best ways of overcoming timidity. 

Every one, especially after a little practice, can 
think better upon his feet ; and even if he does not 
think better, what he says sounds better and makes 
more impression. At first only one or two may rise, 
and they may seem unduly conspicuous, but after a 
while others will be sure to join in. Urge upon the 
members that by rising they show that they are not 
ashamed to testify for Christ ; and bring forward 
the common-sense argument that they can be heard 
with twice the ease, though they speak with only 
one-half the force. 

Besides, every Christian Endeavorer should train 
himself to take part, if need be, in large assemblies ; 
and speakers in such gatherings must rise to their 
feet. There is the slight additional argument, that 
when two or more start to speak simultaneously, if 



POINTS FOR GOOD MEETINGS. 115 

they rise, the leader can easily indicate which is to 
have precedence ; but this is not so easy when they 
remain seated. 

Cut it Short ! — There is one thing that the Chris- 
tian Endeavor movement may have confident hope 
of accomplishing, and that is a shortening of the 
speeches made in prayer meeting by the present and 
all following generations. Here is a church whose 
prayer meetings are attended by, say, one hundred 
and twenty persons. Forty of these are men. Five 
of these men are in the habit of speaking at every 
meeting when they are present ; and they never speak 
less than ten minutes. The result, a dead prayer 
meeting, and a dying church. In the first place, 
there should be at least twenty prayers and testimo- 
nies in every prayer meeting thus well attended. 
There should be twenty more in the next prayer meet- 
ing. And, as a rule, — with, of course, occasional ex- 
ceptions, — one who has spoken at length in one meet- 
ing should take but brief part in the next meeting. 

It is absolutely wrong for any church to be satis- 
fied with the participation in prayer meeting of only 
an insignificant fraction of the congregation. "Why, 
Brother So-and-so always speaks so well, and I like 
to hear him. So do we all. Why not give him his 
ten minutes every evening, and we keep still ? " 
Why not? Because Brother So-and-so will not live 
forever, and others should be training to take his 
place. Because in multitude of counsellors there is 
safety. Because yoitr life has a lesson and a message 
for other lives. Because for your growth it is neces- 



Il6 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

sary that you express before others the best that is 
in you. Because from many voices raised in prayer 
and testimony there is an inspiration that a few can- 
not give, it matters not how eloquent and able may 
be the words they say. 

Endeavorers believe this. Their pledge binds 
them to take some part in every meeting. The large 
number of members compels each one to be brief. 
And who is the loser? Nay, who is not the gainer? 

Believe us, Endeavorers, two earnest sentences, 
pulsing with thought and feeling, having back of 
them many an hour of prayer and life, fired with a 
plain, ardent purpose hot from your heart, will reach 
other hearts as twenty-two sentences would not. 
Learn the art of condensing. Learn the art of selec- 
tion. Don't think it necessary to say all you know 
at one time. Other evenings are coming. Don't 
think it necessary to say all you know on any one 
subject. Others are to speak after you. Be modest, 
and sensible, and — cut it short ! 

Things Timidity Spoils. — If timid people only 
stopped to think how their timidity hinders God 1 s 
work, they would cease to be complacent toward it, 
and would drive it from their lives, gaining instead 
that " holy boldness " which Christ gives to all who 
put their trust in him, and which enables even the 
most bashful of his children to do whatever work he 
has set before them. 

You have a striking experience, the recital of which 
would cheer and comfort many a soul, but — you are 
too timid. You have a strong influence over that 



POINTS FOR GOOD MEETINGS. 117 

erring brother, and a word from you-might bring him 
back to honor and duty, but — you are too timid. 
You have a deep reverence for the Bible, and your 
apt quotations from its rich pages would bless all 
who listen, but — you are too timid. Your prayers 
in your closet uplift and strengthen you as in public 
they would uplift and strengthen others, but — you 
are too timid. 

O what wretched worms we are to fear to say a few 
earnest words to one another about this great busi- 
ness of our living ! O what unworthy children of 
the King, we who are afraid to talk to our Father in 
the presence of our brothers and sisters ! How feeble 
is our trust in God, how miserably strong is our ego- 
tistic fear for ourselves, and for the impression we 
may or may not make on others ! 

Let us all hear God saying to us, as he said to 
Moses : " Who hath made man's mouth? Have not 
I, the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with 
thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say. 11 

A Few Hints to the Timid. — You have some- 
thing to say; we will take that for granted. If not, 
get something to say. 

Being timid, you should take part as soon in the 
meeting as possible, that the meeting may not be 
spoiled for you by your dread of taking part. As 
your timidity wears off, your participation may move 
backward in the meeting hour. 

If you take part early in the meeting, you will not 
be likely to be embarrassed by hearing some one 
else begin at the same time you do. 



Il8 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

When that occurs, however, turn to the person 
who has begun to speak, and nod to him or her, 
implying that you give way. Then, after he or she 
has finished, be sure to speak next, for every one 
will expect you to. 

One of the best ways of overcoming timidity is to 
rise when you speak. This puts one on his mettle, 
and rallies all his forces. Try it. 

Begin to speak while you are rising, and there will 
then be no danger of hearing some one start to tes- 
tify as soon as you have gained your feet. 

Speak in a voice as even and firm and decided as 
you can command. The voice you assume has an 
important influence on your feelings. If you can 
make your voice courageous, you will soon become 
so yourself. 

Do not speak too rapidly. You will thus lose self- 
control, and, what is worse, no one will get much 
good out of what you are saying. 

Do not be disconcerted if you cannot remember 
the rest of what you were going to say. Just stop. 
If you cannot remember it, probably they would not 
remember it, either. 

Don't be afraid of your fellow-Endeavorers. Ar- 
gue thus with yourself: " I should not be afraid to 
say this to Mary Brown, should I? No. Or to Will 
Lemons? No." And so you may go on through 
the whole society. Then, if you would not be afraid 
to say it to any of these separately, why should you 
bz afraid to say it to all of them together? 

Go into a meeting with the determination to speak 



POINTS FOR GOOD MEETINGS. 119 

boldly for Christ. Say to yourself, "Now I am 
going to say this thing, and I am not going to have 
any foolishness about it. If it is to be said, why 
should I wait and be miserable worrying over it? 
Out with it at once ! " 

Remember, above all things, that you are not 
speaking for yourself, but for God, and he will see 
that you speak to his glory. You have Christ's plain 
word for it. Is not that enough? 

Stick to the Prayer Meeting. — Once in a while I 
hear of a society that drops its regular prayer meet- 
ing for the purpose of listening to some lecture. To 
be sure, the lecture is always on some religious sub- 
ject, and the speaker is one especially invited by the 
society. The members are present in large num- 
bers ; and yet I am certain that such meetings are a 
mistake. They break up the continuity of pledge 
observance. They furnish one more preaching ser- 
vice, whereas one of the great advantages of the 
Christian Endeavor prayer meeting is that it is so 
essentially different from the other services of the 
day, if your meeting is held on Sunday, that it does 
not fatigue the participants. My own observations 
have been that such departures from the legitimate 
work of Christian Endeavor societies do more harm 
than good. 

The Time for Meeting. — It is still undecided 
when is the best time to hold Christian Endeavor 
prayer meetings, — whether before or after the Sun- 
day evening meeting of the church, or on some 
week-day evening. Probably the time never can be 



120 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

uniform, since the circumstances of the different 
churches vary so widely. 

The majority of societies hold their meetings just 
before the evening service of the church, and in 
many churches the pastor ascends the pulpit imme- 
diately after the conclusion of the Christian Endea- 
vor prayer meeting, so that the two services are 
really one, each being, of course, shorter than an 
hour. 

Many wise pastors prefer, however, to have the 
Christian Endeavor service come after the evening 
preaching service, and to use it for an after-meeting. 
The older people like to remain, and those that are 
interested in the pastor's words stay to see what the 
same Christianity he has been preaching can do for 
younger people. 

A Summarist. — It often happens that some of 
the most helpful things said in the course of a Chris- 
tian Endeavor meeting are spoken at the beginning, 
but these are likely to be quite forgotten before the 
close of the evening. For the purpose of reviving 
these, and at the same time bringing the meeting to 
a focus, some societies have adopted the helpful cus- 
tom of appointing a summarist, who occupies a min- 
ute or two just before the last hymn in reading a 
paper upon which he has written the most helpful 
thoughts expressed in the course of the evening. 

This summarist is appointed by the president, and 
is a different person each week. Since all the mem- 
bers know that they are likely to be called upon in 
this capacity, they are more attentive at every meet- 



POINTS FOR GOOD MEETINGS. 12 1 

ing, that they may be able to accomplish the work 
well when it falls to their lot. Thus a double point 
is gained. 

What Seven Did. — As a bit of inspiration to 
prayer-meeting committees that are laboring under 
difficulties and feel discouraged, it is well worth 
while to repeat here the account of one of the reg- 
ular meetings of a California society of only seven 
members about which I have heard. 

There was first a ten-minute praise service of 
prayer songs, prayer being the subject of the even- 
ing. Then came a moment of silent prayer, after 
which the members read in concert the sixty-first 
psalm. The prayer-meeting committee then led a 
Bible-reading, whose subject was, " The Bible teach- 
ings with regard to prayer." In answer to the 
leader's question, "What is prayer?" five members 
gave their answers. Then came quotations and 
poems taken from " Aids to Endeavor," and sen- 
tence prayers in which one prayed who had never 
prayed before. Following this, one member recited 
a poem, " Answered Prayer," and another told about 
the emphasis B. Fay Mills puts upon prayer in his 
meetings, and at the close were prayers for special 
objects. 

If a meeting of so much interest and variety can be 
conducted by a society so small, can any of us find 
an excuse for poor meetings in our larger societies? 

An Open Parliament. — Open parliaments may 
occupy occasionally a portion of the time of the 
Christian Endeavor prayer meeting. For example, 



122 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

such a topic as " Our duties in the Sunday morning 
services " might well be discussed by different mem- 
bers, especially when the topic has something to do 
with Sabbath observance. 

The Benediction. — The Mizpah benediction has 
come in common use in our Christian Endeavor 
societies. It is the sentence found in Genesis 31 149, 
''The Lord watch between me and thee, when we 
are absent one from another. " It is not always 
correctly given, and the exact wording should be 
noticed. 

An occasional use is recommended of this sen- 
tence from the psalms: "Let the words of our 
mouths and the meditations of our hearts be accept- 
able in thy sight, O Lord, our Strength and our Re- 
deemer. 11 Also of this benediction from Numbers 
6 : 24-26 : 

"The Lord bless thee and keep thee: 

The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gra- 
cious unto thee: 

The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give 
thee peace." 

The latter form of benediction is especially beauti- 
ful and appropriate. 

A Rule Worth Remembering. — Some Endeavor- 
ers find difficulty in knowing just when they are 
speaking loudly enough and not too loud. The 
regular elocutionist's rule is worth remembering, — 
Speak to the people that are farthest away from you- 



POINTS FOR GOOD MEETINGS. 1 23 

If you have those in mind, and those only, you will 
speak loudly enough for all to hear, and yet not so 
loudly as to be disagreeable. 

Volunteers. —The chairman of the prayer-meet- 
ing committee may occasionally call for volunteers 
for the next meeting. The call may be, " Let those 
stand who will lead in prayer during the next meet- 
ing," or, " Let those rise who will have some words 
to say on the topic of the next meeting." In this 
way a certain part of the society is set to very definite 
thinking during the week. 

Writing Comments. — The prayer-meeting com- 
mittee should keep its eye on the members that are 
too diffident or too slothful to take part in the meet- 
ing except by reading a verse. An excellent plan is 
to make special requests that such members write 
out something regarding the topic, and hand it to 
the member of the committee who prefers the re- 
quest. He will correct it, and then hand it back for 
reading in the meeting. 

The Cold End of the Meeting. — The prayer-meet- 
ing committee must see to it that the opening of the 
meeting is provided with speakers ready to push 
things, but nevertheless it must look after the cold 
end of the meeting, — that time toward the close 
when the majority have spoken, and the meeting is 
likely to lag. For this period let some of the com- 
mittee reserve their contributions, or have some 
plan to propose, — such as a series of sentence 
prayers, or the concert reading of a hymn, or a rep- 
etition in concert of some familiar passage of Scrip- 



124 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

ture, or to call upon some visitor for a few words of 
counsel, — that may render the close of the meeting 
as hearty as its beginning. Take care of the ends of 
the meeting, and the middle will take care of itself. 

Starters. — I have heard of a society a few of 
whose members conspired to form what they called 
a band of " first getters-up." That is capital. 

Mr. Moody tells how he started a revival in a 
dying church. He got ten men to promise to be 
the first to take part at the next prayer meeting. 
These ten rose at the same time. Such a thing was 
never known in that church before, and the revival 
began at once. 

It defies grammar, but let us have ten "firsts " in 
every church ; and who so well fitted to watch this 
beginning of a meeting as the members of the 
prayer-meeting committee ? 

After the Close. — Much of the spiritual effect of 
our Christian Endeavor meetings is dissipated in the 
worldly chit-chat and gossip into which the prayer- 
meeting attendants are likely to fall during the inter- 
val between the close of the prayer meeting and the 
beginning of the evening service. Conscientious 
members of the prayer-meeting committee may effect 
a reform if they will distribute themselves through- 
out the room, and earnestly strive to keep the after- 
meeting conversation blessedly in line with the 
theme of the meeting. Why is it that we are so 
hesitant to talk with one another about religious 
truths, anyway? 

For Answer in the Meeting. — Every week the 



POINTS FOR GOOD MEETINGS. 1 25 

prayer-meeting pages of some Christian Endeavor 
papers give a series of questions bearing upon the 
Christian Endeavor topic of the week. If you have 
no such paper, make up your own questions. These 
questions are intended to stimulate thought, and to 
lead to the giving of personal testimony instead of 
the mere reading of a verse of Scripture. Many 
prayer-meeting committees have adopted the excel" 
lent plan of cutting out these questions, pasting them 
on separate slips of paper, and handing these slips at 
the previous meeting to members whom it is desired 
to get out of the verse-reading class. 

Another way is to hand out these slips at the meet- 
ing when the topic is to be discussed, or to write 
the questions upon a blackboard, placing it before the 
society, and asking the members to answer any 
questions they choose. Sometimes it is well to 
assign one question to several Endeavorers, that 
their answers may be compared. Sometimes the 
leader will read the questions in order, calling upon 
previously designated members to give their answers. 
At other times these answers will .come in the course 
of the meeting, with no reference to the previous 
giving out of the questions. Sometimes the prayer- 
meeting committee will prepare its own questions, 
and occasionally the members will themselves be 
requested to come prepared with questions on the 
topic which they will propound for the leader himself 
to answer, or, if the leader cannot answer them, the 
pastor or some older Endeavorer may be requested 
to do so. 



126 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

A Useful Pause. — Place upon the blackboard the 
questions just described. About the middle of the 
meeting announce that a full five minutes will be 
devoted to silent communion and meditation upon 
the thoughts presented upon the blackboard. During 
these five minutes there must be no speaking, sing- 
ing, or audible prayer. This exercise will add much 
to the impressiveness of the meeting, and to the value 
of the latter portion of it, besides teaching the mem- 
bers how to prepare for succeeding meetings. 

Use of the Blackboard. —No Christian Endeavor 
society is well equipped for its work that does not 
possess a blackboard, or some substitute for it. A 
portable blackboard is easily made, or may be bought 
cheaply. Wood, cloth, or slate are the best mate- 
rials. If for any reason a blackboard is not be 
obtained, you can at least use large sheets of manilla 
paper, with some dark-colored chalk. 

The usss of a blackboard are almost infinite, and 
increase as a society becomes accustomed to it. A 
set of questions upon the topic, written on the black- 
board, will suggest testimonies and little talks from 
the members, and will be a strong stimulus to many 
a meeting. 

It is well for the leader to write upon the black- 
board the divisions of the topic as he wishes it con- 
sidered. In a conspicuous part of the blackboard 
may be printed the subject of the meeting, with the 
place where the Scripture passage is found, and pos- 
sibly the numbers of the hymns to be used. Any 
notice it is desirable to bring before the society con- 



POINTS FOR GOOD MEETINGS. 1 27 

spicuously may be written upon the board. Many 
leaders are skilled in the use of diagrams, and im- 
portant truths can be fixed in this way upon the 
memory. 

One of the best ways of conducting a consecration 
meeting is to write the names of members upon 
the board, asking them to take part in that order, the 
secretary noting the participation without calling the 
names. Upon the board may be written passages of 
Scripture to be read by the society in concert. 

Many if not all of our Christian Endeavor topics 
could be attractively illustrated on the blackboard, 
and if your society has any one skilled in the use of 
chalk, he should be utilized in this way. Very often 
the blackboard illustrations for the Junior topic given 
in the Christian Endeavor papers would be suitable 
also for the topic of the older society, and the ingenu- 
ity of the artist will supply others. If the picture is 
placed before the society it will do its work in silence 
and need not be referred to, though a good picture is 
almost certain to be referred to by some one in the 
course of the evening. 

The Front Seats. — I am not one of those that 
feel like urging, at all times, that the front seats be 
compactly filled. It does not annoy me when the 
audience sits in the back part of the room, and I am 
not afraid of the rows of empty benches between me 
and them. This is because I believe that the ideal. 
arrangement, both for seeing and hearing, is a wide 
semi-circle, with the leader in the centre. 

It can always be felt, however, when the empty 



128 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

front seats are causing a coldness and stiffness ; and 
when the prayer-meeting committee sees this to be 
the case, effort should be made to close up the ranks. 
In my own society, at one time, there was a bold call 
for volunteers who would promise always to sit in the 
row of seats next the front, or, if those seats were 
occupied, as far forward as might be. Nearly every 
one in the room promptly rose to signify his promise 
to do this, and we had no more trouble with front 
seats. Such a " front seat brigade " might be formed 
in any society. 

Possibly a better plan is the appointment of ushers, 
two of the younger lads, one for each door, or for 
each side of the room ; and these will seat the mem- 
bers as far forward as is deemed necessary. It is 
better that ushers should be appointed, than that 
the social committee should do this work. The 
social committee should be free to meet the strangers, 
introduce them to the members, sit down by them, 
and make them feel at home throughout the evening. 

One of the best preventives of this front seat 
difficulty is to have no more seats in the room than 
are likely to be needed. It is far better to bring in 
chairs to accommodate an unusually large crowd, 
than to have empty chairs staring the society in the 
face during the meeting. 

You may turn the seats in the back rows entirely 
around, reversing the chairs only when they are 
needed after the front ones have been filled up. The 
ushers may stretch a cord along the aisle, shutting 
off these seats from occupation until the front ones 



POINTS FOR GOOD MEETINGS. 129 

are filled. The back seats may be tipped forward 
against those in front, signifying that they are re- 
served for the late comers. Or, the ushers may 
politely request those who have taken the back seats 
to move forward, telling them the reason why. 

Another ingenious cure for the back seat habit is 
the following placard, posted conspicuously in the 
prayer-meeting room. No one who reads it will care 
to be found in a back seat if a front seat is obtain- 
able : 



IF YOU WANT A BACK SEAT AT THE 

PRAYER MEETING 

YOU WILL HAVE TO COME EARLY. 



Some societies place in the vestibule of the prayer- 
meeting room, facing the entrance, a large board, 
bearing this staring inscription : " Please come to the 
front. 1 ' 



I30 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 



CHAPTER XII. 
SPECIAL MEETINGS. 

Their Value. — There is danger of having too 
many ''special meetings"; there is greater danger 
of having too few. When a cart is jerked out of the 
rut, it is very likely to start for the other side of the 
road instead of keeping straight forward ; but that is 
better than staying in the rut. We must have variety 
in our meetings ; we must not make a hobby horse 
of this same variety. 

There is virtue, however, in a new method, just 
because it is new. It may not be as good as the old 
way, but its freshness will waken your society and in- 
vigorate it more than the better old way could, and 
after trying the new you will go back to the old with 
new zest and appreciation. Therefore I beseech all 
readers of this book to use this chapter, but to use it 
wisely. When you see that the meetings have begun 
to drag and that they need some stimulus of novelty, 
then, and not till then, put in practice some one of 
the following suggestions ; and when the new plan 
has done its work, give it up, and return to the good 
old ways. 

Memory Meetings. — One of the best modes of 
getting out of the ruts, is a memory meeting. Every- 
thing at this meeting is based upon the memory. 



SPECIAL MEETINGS. 13I 

There are to be no books, with the single exception 
of a hymn-book granted the organist. The leader 
must commit to memory the Scripture reference for 
the evening, and everything he proposes to say. A':l 
verses must be repeated, hymns must be called for 
without consulting the lrymn-books, and by name if 
the numbers are not familiarly known, and every one 
must sing from memory. It would be well to make 
one of the exercises of the evening a repetition of 
the pledge from memory, and there should be also 
the concert repetition, in the same way, of familiar 
passages of Scripture, as well as of familiar hymns. 

A Sample Memory Meeting. — Not all our En- 
deavorers, though an increasing number of them, 
appreciate the usefulness of memory meetings. I 
have been very much interested in a pleasant ac- 
count of a memory meeting that appeared in A T orth 
and West. May the reading of it prompt many so- 
cieties to hold prayer meetings of this useful form : 



Suppose all the hymn-books were stolen away and all 
the Bibles were burned up, as in the days of persecu- 
tions ! Suppose we were blind, and could not use our 
helps in worship as we do. Perhaps the lights fail us. 
Perhaps we are at a summer resort where all the devo- 
tional aids are missing, as is apt to be the case. Shall we 
therefore have no services? That is a very frequent re- 
sult. But it is not the best way to spend a sacred day. 

The fathers used to have vesper praise service at home 
every Sabbath evening. In the days when books were 
scarcer, and when the hymns were fewer in number, when 



17,2 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

the hymns were lined out a verse at a time, and worship- 
pers had to depend upon their memory rather than their 
eyesight, people learned more hymns than they do now. 
It was easy to sit in the gloaming of a holy day and swing 
these censers of song whose incense went up from the 
home altar of the manse to the celestial courts. Precious 
stanzas of praise had been hidden in our hearts, and every 
tender, holy sentiment could find voice in rhythmic verse. 

So when our pastor did not preach those August even- 
ings, our elders and Endeavor society held a memory 
meeting in which no written or printed helps were to 
be spread before the eye. The hour opened with " Jesus, 
Lover of my Soul." Then all repeated the Lord's 
Prayer. Another well known hymn, and all rose to re- 
peat the Apostles' Creed. Then the Ten Commandments 
came, with some hesitancy on the second and fourth, 
which were the long ones. The minister got one of the 
short ones out of place, too. In some of the gospel 
songs it was odd to note how much stronger and firmer 
the chorus was than other portions, especially after the 
first verse. People rarely master the thought. The lines 
go into the eye word by word and out again, leaving an 
impression and nothing more. 

The lesson topic was from the first chapter of John, and 
the leader had committed the classic introduction which 
begins that gospel. His attention had been so directed to 
the emphatic words, and to the reason for using certain 
verbs and expressions, that he brought out its meaning 
far better than if he had read it hastily without real study, 
or had skimmed some comment about it. A number of 
people had passages of precious promise and comfort. A 
daughter led us all in giving the twenty-third psalm. 



SPECIAL MEETINGS. 133 

As a help in prayer, Calvin had his confession, which 
he had all the congregation join in repeating. This came 
in appropriately here. " Almighty and most merciful 
Father, we have erred and strayed from thy ways like 
lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and 
desires of our own hearts. We have offended against thy 
holy laws. We have left undone those things which we 
ought to have done, and we have done those things which 
we ought not to have done, and there is no health in us. 
But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offend- 
ers. Spare thou those, O God, who confess their faults. 
Restore thou those who are penitent; according to thy 
promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord. 
And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake, that 
we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, 
to the glory of thy holy name. Amen." 

A Scotch brother recalled an old hymn as sweet as a 
heathered hill, and one that is doubtless out of print. 
His prayer must be in large part a reminiscence of Dr. 
Guthrie's, for he sat under that illustrious divine until he 
learned the language of Canaan. 

But many, alas, could remember nothing. One tried 
the Gloria in Excelsis. No one attempted the Te Deum 
Laudamus. Not a single chapter from the Bible could 
be quoted even in partial completeness. Most were 
rusty even in the catechism. It was a delightful meet- 
ing, but it emphasized the importance of cultivating the 
memory. Much of our worship is too vague. It would be 
well to master and remember more devotional material. 

The Consecration Meeting. — For a discussion of 
this most important topic I must refer the readers 



134 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

of this book to a pamphlet entitled, " The Crowning 
Meeting,"' published by the United Society of Chris- 
tian Endeavor. Price ten cents. In that pamphlet, 
I have given a very large number of different ways of 
conducting a consecration meeting, to avoid formal- 
ity, and yet get at the results that all consecration 
meetings should seek. Here are a few methods for 
varying the consecration meetings that have been 
brought to my attention since writing that pamphlet. 

Instruct the secretary to make a separate list of 
those members whom he knows to be absent, and 
read this list after the rest. A slight glance over 
the audience will often show him just who are 
absent, so that he can add to his list even after he 
reaches the prayer-meeting room. This plan gives 
unity to the meeting, and avoids the pause that 
sometimes occurs after the reading of an absent 
member's name. 

In some large societies it may be well to appoint 
a special consecration committee to care for the in- 
terests of the consecration meeting. There are many 
things that such a committee could do. It could 
suggest to the members that are in the habit of 
merely reading a verse, other ways of participating. 
It could plan fresh ways of conducting the meeting. 
It could make it its business to keep the consecration 
meeting prominently before the members during the 
month. It could get more experience-telling into 
meetings. Best of all, it could make its own mem- 
bers models of the right way to take part in a con- 
secration meeting, — prayerfully, humbly, earnestly. 



SPECIAL MEETINGS. 135 

Other Methods. — It will be of use to give here a 
brief statement of some of the methods of varying 
the consecration meeting that are described fully, 
with others, in the pamphlet above referred to. 

The secretary may call the letters of the alphabet, 
pausing after each letter for the members whose 
names begin with that letter to take part in any 
order they choose. The members present may be 
divided into sections, those in different blocks of 
seats taking part in order, as their section is called. 
You may occasionally hold a voluntary consecration 
meeting, the members taking part promptly in their 
own order, the secretary calling at the close the list 
of the members that have not taken part. 

There may be a prayer consecration meeting, in 
which each member may participate by offering 
prayer. The roll, in this case, should not be called. 
In a committee consecration meeting the roll is called 
by committees. These rise and take part, the chair- 
man leading, in some way appropriate to their com- 
mittee work. 

At a "next step" consecration meeting the En- 
deavorers are invited to take part, each one of them, 
in the way he finds most difficult. At the consecra- 
tion meeting next after the election of officers, these 
officers and the new committees may take part with 
special reference to the new work they have under- 
taken. 

At a " C. E." consecration meeting the ques- 
tion, " What does Christian Endeavor mean to you? " 
is the basis of the evening's thought, and each mem- 



136 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

ber brings two verses to answer the question, one 
beginning with the letter C and the other with the 
letter E, illustrating them with personal comments. 
At a song consecration meeting the members sing 
their consecration, or express it by reading passages 
from hymns. 

At all these meetings, though the roll may not be 
called, the secretary should carefully note who takes 
part. When the roll is called, it should not uni- 
formly be called in the same way. Sometimes begin 
with the end of the alphabet and call the roll back- 
wards. Occasionally call three or four names at a 
time, the members responding in the order in which 
their names are called. Sometimes print a list of 
the members in large letters on the blackboard, or 
furnish each member with a list prepared on a hecto- 
graph, and have them give their testimony without 
any other roll-call. Where there is a pause, the 
secretary will read the name of the absent member, 
as a token that the next in order should take part. 

The associate members' names, if called at all 
during the consecration meeting, should be called 
at the opening and from a separate list. The asso- 
ciates should not be expected to do more than answer 
" Present," though they should be permitted, of 
course, to do more, if they desire. 

Every consecration meeting should open, and, 
possibly, close with the concert repetition of the 
pledge. 

In the Order of Badges. — Some societies carry on 
the consecration meeting without a roll-call, in this 



SPECIAL MEETINGS. 137 

way. On a rack at the entrance hang badges, each 
bearing a number. The members themselves have 
numbers to correspond, and as each member comes 
in he takes down his own number and wears the 
badge throughout the meeting. The members take 
part in the order of their numbers, without a roll- 
call. The secretary has before him the rack from 
which the badges have been removed, and can t zll 
at once what numbers are not present. When the 
time for these numbers comes, he simply announces 
them, indicating that the members belonging to them 
are not present, and that the Endeavorer whose 
number comes next is to speak. At the close of 
the meeting the Endeavorers going out throw their 
badges into a receptacle, and this makes material 
for the records of the secretary and the lookout 
committee. 

Letter Evening. — Preparation for this meeting 
must be begun long before. The prayer-meeting 
committee will write to Endeavorers in different parts 
of the country, preferably to the old members of the 
society that have left town, and to former members 
of the church that have removed their residence, or 
to ministers and distinguished Christians that are 
personally known to the members of the society. 
All these will be informed regarding the plan of the 
meeting, and asked to send some message upon the 
topic of that night. 

The reading of these messages will occupy nearly 
all the time of the evening, and will prove a pleasant 
link joining the old members to the present work of 



I38 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

the society. Applications for messages should not 
be made, of course, to persons that have no personal 
interest in the society. 

Suggestion Meetings. — An occasional suggestion 
meeting will prove very helpful. Let each member' 
write to some friend who is active in Christian En- 
deavor work, and ask him for a plan or a method 
which he thinks novel and helpful. On the ap- 
pointed evening the letters received in response are 
read, and in this way there are focused upon one so- 
ciety the experiences of many widely scattered En- 
deavorers. 

Post Office Days. — On Christian Endeavor post 
office day, the active members hand in letters that 
they have written to the Juniors and to the asso- 
ciate members. The letters are not written to spe- 
cial persons, but are handed in to the president, 
who, with the aid of the other officers, addresses 
them at the close of the Christian Endeavor service, 
and hands them to the Junior superintendent to be 
distributed to the Juniors. 

Here is a sample letter once sent by an active to 
an associate member in distant Australia : 

July 13, 1894. 
Dear Friend : Why are you not an active member? 
We are glad to have you as an associate, but you mean to 
be an active member some day, do you not? Then why 
will you not be one now ? If you do not love Jesus, then 
now is the very time to begin. You do not know any- 
thing of the future ; all you have is the very present. I 



SPECIAL MEETINGS. 139 

think everybody wants to make the best of his or her life; 
then is it not the best to give that life, with all its hopes 
and plans, into God's hand? Perhaps you have done 
this, but think you cannot do anything for him. Have 
you ever thought of that verse — "Co-laborers together 
with God "? O, is not that a high privilege; do you not 
want to claim it? I pray that you may do so to-day. I 
think we all want to remember more that we are "trust- 
ing in the Lord Jesus for strength," and not in ourselves. 
If we remember this all the days of every week of every 
year, I think we should be different. 

I remain yours sincerely, 

Active Member. 



Sunrise Prayer Meetings. — It is to be hoped 
that the Christian Endeavor societies understand by 
this time the blessing that can be gained from an oc- 
casional sunrise prayer meeting. The slight exer- 
tion needed to get out at that early hour, the unusual 
time and surroundings, the feeling of enterprise, all 
combine to give zest to these meetings; while the 
fact that the members are at the very beginning of 
the day contributes to the thoughtfulness of the 
exercises. 

The most fitting times for sunrise prayer meetings 
are Christmas, New Year's day, and Easter. These 
early morning prayer meetings are now held in con- 
nection with the large Christian Endeavor conven- 
tions, and it would be a good idea for all societies to 
hold them at the time of the sessions of the Inter- 
national Convention, whose early morning prayer 



140 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

meetings are always the most spiritual and helpful of 
its meetings. 

One of the most earnest of the society members, or 
the pastor of the church, should conduct the sunrise 
prayer meeting. A bright song service should be 
held while the late ones are arriving, and there 
should be much prayer throughout the hour. A 
good deal of care should be taken in selecting the 
theme, which should always be bright, cheery, and 
forward-looking. No thought is more suitable than 
that of consecration, — consecration to the highest 
ideals ; consecration to the work God has set before 
us in the day or year to come. 

The older members of the church will always like 
to join in these early morning prayer meetings, and 
an earnest invitation to do so should always be 
given them. 

Morning by Morning. — Where the spiritual tide 
of the society has begun to run low, a succession of 
morning prayer meetings will sometimes be found 
just what the society needs. Not all the members 
may come, but you will find that those that do come 
will receive an impetus for the day's service that will 
uplift even those that remain in their beds. 

Some societies have adopted the plan of transfer- 
ring to the early morning the regular society prayer 
meeting, thus relieving the evening programme of 
the church, and affording the young people a mag- 
nificent opening of the day's worship. 

A Moonlight Prayer Meeting. — The same good 
results that attend sunrise prayer meetings might be 



SPECIAL MEETINGS. 141 

expected to attend those held by moonlight. The 
strangeness of the surroundings gets the society out 
of the ruts, and the beauty and solemnity of the 
scene is always impressive. Such meetings held 
occasionally, of course in the warmer months, when 
alone out door meetings are possible, serve very 
pleasantly to break up the monotony of the ordinary 
work. 

A Sealed Order Meeting. — This meeting carries 
out the analogy of the sealed orders given to captains 
as they set out on their voyages, the orders to be 
opened after they have left the shore and gone a cer- 
tain distance. Before the beginning of the meeting 
the prayer-meeting committee passes around little 
slips, each containing directions for participation in 
the meeting. Of course the plan must be mentioned 
at the preceding meeting, and the co-operation of the 
Endeavorers gained at that time. The slips will re- 
quest one Endeavorer to offer prayer, another to give 
a comment on a certain Bible verse, another to read 
certain stanzas of some hymn, and so on. Of course 
the requests will be fitted to the capabilities of each 
recipient. 

A Biographical Meeting. — Practically all of our 
Christian Endeavor topics can be illustrated copi- 
ously by the lives of well-known men and women. 
Once in a while the prayer-meeting committee may 
wish to conduct a biographical meeting. Careful 
preparations should be made some time beforehand. 
The lives of the chosen heroes and heroines should 
be obtained from the public library or from private 



142 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

sources, and distributed to suitable persons, who will 
prepare themselves to speak at length or briefly, as 
the committee may direct, or, possibly, to read some 
short paper, or some extract from the book. This 
portion of the evening's exercises should not occupy 
more than fifteen or twenty minutes, and at the close 
every Endeavorer present should be given an oppor- 
tunity to testify. 

A Young Men's Meeting. — I have heard of a 
society that contained ten young men who had not 
led in public prayer and who determined to over- 
come their difficulties. They organized a prayer 
meeting which met twenty minutes before the reg- 
ular prayer meeting, and in that meeting for young 
men alone they gained a confidence for the more 
public service. If the young men will take the lead 
in such matters, it. will not be difficult for them to 
obtain a good following. 

A Young Women's Meeting. — An evening en- 
tirely, or almost entirely, given up to the use of the 
young women of the society, may occasionally be 
helpful. The meeting is to be led by a young 
woman, and all that take a prominent part are to be 
of the same sex. The young men, however, are to 
be given an opportunity to keep their pledge with 
sentence prayers or very brief participation. This 
may be followed, of course, by a young men's meet- 
ing. 

A Question Meeting. — Announce the plan of this 
meeting one week beforehand. Request the mem- 
bers to give careful study to the topic of the evening 



SPECIAL MEETINGS. 1 43 

in connection with the Bible references, and to come 
each with two or three questions on the topic writ- 
ten on slips of paper. These questions are to be 
gathered and then distributed at random, so as to 
give each person present one or more. The meet- 
ing will consist of answers to these questions. 

Question-Box Meetings. — The Uniform Topics 
always prescribe one question-box meeting in the 
course of the year, but these meetings are so helpful 
that many societies will wish to hold them oftener, 
or, if not to give up an entire evening to them, to 
open question-boxes during a portion of certain even- 
ings. The feature should be announced distinctly 
one week beforehand. The Endeavorers must be 
asked to write out for the coming meeting clear and 
pointed questions, not merely on Christian Endeavor 
problems, but on any difficulty connected with the 
religious life. 

Members of Christian Endeavor committees will 
ask for the solution of some of their difficulties. The 
officers of the society will ask questions tending to 
enforce some neglected principles. The pastor will 
find an opportunity to bring before the society some 
points he could not well bring out in other ways. 
Doubters will have an opportunity for the relief of 
their doubts. Students can bring in their Bible 
questions, and those whose friends are battling with 
any trouble may, by means of skillful questions, ob- 
tain for them some assistance. 

The leader of this meeting should be the brightest 
and readiest member of the societv. He should be 



144 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

quick to see a point and shrewd in expressing him- 
self, and at the same time possessed of a good meas- 
ure of tact. He should not, however, expect to 
answer even the majority of the questions himself. 
It will greatly help the meeting if he asks a large 
number of wise men and women of the church, in- 
cluding, of course, the pastor and the church officers, 
to attend that special Christian Endeavor meeting, 
for the purpose of answering questions that may be 
referred to them. The Sunday-school superinten- 
dent should of course be there, since many questions 
will refer to Sunday-school work. Besides, the 
leader should inform the society that he will call 
upon all members of the society, at his pleasure, to 
give what light they can upon any question. 

After the opening exercises, ushers will collect the 
questions, which the leader will read without pre- 
viously examining them. The questions should be 
read in a clear voice, so that all can understand 
them. It will be w r ell for the leader, at the outset of 
the meeting, to urge extreme brevity upon all who 
may be called upon to answer. This brevity he will 
himself illustrate in his own replies to the questions. 

In initiating this plan in your society, it will be 
well for the leader to arm himself beforehand with a 
number of questions, to be used in case the queries 
sent in by the members are not sufficiently numer- 
ous. If the meeting, however, is well talked up, there 
will be no fear of this. Hymns should be inter- 
spersed among the questions, and the meeting should 
not close without a few words of earnest prayer for 



SPECIAL MEETINGS. 1 45 

God's blessing upon it. I count this kind of meet- 
ing one of the most helpful in which a Christian En- 
deavor society can engage, and earnestly urge that it 
be held by every society at least once a year. 

An Answer-Box. — Answer-boxes are not so com- 
monly a feature of Christian Endeavor meetings as 
question-boxes, but they are almost equally valuable. 
The basis of an answer-box is a single question, 
propounded to the society one week beforehand. 
Answers to this question are to be written by the 
Endeavorers, and it would be well to state a limit of 
length. At the opening of the answer-box meeting 
these answers are collected, and are read by the 
leader. If it is thought best, the leader may com- 
ment upon the answers as he reads them, or may 
call upon some other Endeavorer to say a fitting 
word now and then. Prayers may also be inter- 
spersed, and appropriate songs. 

Sometimes, instead of an answer-box, there may 
be held what may be called an answer meeting, pre- 
vious warning having been given. This is like the 
meeting just described, with the exception that the 
answers to the question of the evening are not written 
beforehand, but are spoken by the Endeavorers, one 
after the other. This form of meeting is the more 
lively of the two. Such a question as, " Why do 
you belong to the Christian Endeavor Society?" 
would make a good topic for the answer-box ; or 
such a topic as, "What is the greatest blessing you 
have found in the Christian life?" or, "What es- 
pecial hindrance have you met with in your commit- 



146 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

tee work?" or, " What method of Bible study have 
you found most- helpful? " or, " How do you get 
your Sunday-school lesson?" or, "How can we 
interest strangers in this society and church ? " or, 
" How can we help our pastor? " or, " What book, 
besides the Bible, has been most helpful to you in 
your Christian life?" Any question that deeply 
touches Christian experience or Christian work, 
makes a good basis for an answer meeting. 

Associate Members* Meetings. — At least one 
evening in the year should be devoted to the needs 
of the associate members and to the unconverted. 
Gf course by this I do not mean that these classes 
should not be constantly in mind. All our meetings 
should seek as their first end the salvation of souls ; 
but during one meeting out of the fifty-two, if not 
oftener, everything in the meeting should tend toward 
this one aim. 

For this meeting the lookout and the prayer-meet- 
ing committees should make special preparations. 
It should be led by the pastor, or, if he is prevented 
from doing this service, by some spiritually minded 
Endeavorer in your society. Every means should be 
used to obtain the attendance of the associate mem- 
bers and your unconverted friends. By previous 
conversations, get the more experienced workers to 
promise to give earnest personal testimonies, telling 
just what Christ has done for them, and how their 
membership in his church has been a blessing and a 
constant assistance. 

Do not fail before the close of the meeting to call 



SPECIAL MEETINGS. 1 47 

for decisions for the Christian life. Simply the lift- 
ing of the hand will be sufficient, if it is clearly under- 
stood that this is in token that the person sincerely 
desires Christ's salvation from sin, and admission 
mto his kingdom. 

Post-Vacation Meetings. — One of the best meet- 
ings in the fall, after the Endeavorers have all returned 
from their summer outings, may be a post-vacation 
meeting. Every Endeavorer is to tell something 
connected with his summer experiences, — some les- 
son he has learned from his vacation, or some mes- 
sage of good cheer that he has to report from the 
summer. 

A Star Meeting. — Programme committees for 
anniversaries and local celebrations, desirous of in- 
troducing brief talks on fundamental Christian En- 
deavor topics, may find this method helpful. Get 
some skillful-fingered worker to cut out of cardboard 
a large gilt star, to be suspended above the speaker's 
desk. Have a " C. E. 11 monogram of silver paper, 
or, better yet, if feasible, of incandescent electric 
lights, placed in the centre, in order that it may be 
a C. E. star. On each of the five points of the star 
have inscribed one of the following topics: " The 
Pledge, 11 " Relation to the Church, 11 " Personal Con- 
secration, 11 " Committee Work," " The Junior Soci- 
ety.' 1 " The Pledge 11 could be placed on the point 
at the opening of the C. The subjects might then 
be treated consecutively by different members of the 
society. Perhaps it would be well to have the presi- 
dent show the unity of the whole in a two-minute 



1 4S PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

talk at the close. His theme could be, " C. E. — 
Combined Excellences.'" 

A Twentieth-Century Prayer Meeting. — It was 
a very novel way the young people of a certain soci- 
ety in Michigan once took to arouse the older mem- 
bers of the church to a sense of their responsibility 
to the weekly church prayer meeting. The story is 
interesting, moreover, as showing how, in one church, 
at least, the Endeavorers were more loyal to the 
church prayer meeting than the older church-mem- 
bers themselves. 

In this especial church very few of the older mem- 
bers took any active part in the weekly prayer meet- 
ing, except a certain group, for whom every one else 
waited, no one outside of this group being even ex- 
pected to take part. Nineteen of the young people 
decided that a change would be a good thing. They 
consulted with their pastor, and the following events 
were the result. 

The pastor announced from his pulpit on Sunday 
that in place of the usual church prayer meeting 
they would hold a " twentieth-century prayer meet- 
ing, 11 and he hoped that every one would be present. 
In the mean time the young people were dividing up 
the hour, arranging a programme which was known 
only among themselves. On the regular evening the 
room was well filled, many coming out of curiosity. 

There was the ordinary opening service, and as 
soon as the pastor finished speaking an Endeavorer 
offered prayer, and then one after another spoke 
words of testimony, called for a hymn, or led in 



SPECIAL MEETINGS. 1 49 

prayer, each taking part in accordance with the con- 
certed programme. Not a pause occurred, not a 
moment was lost. 

Just before the closing prayer, the pastor said he 
had been informed by the young people that the 
meeting was such a one as they intended to have in 
the twentieth century when they had become the 
older members of the church, but he hoped it would 
not be necessary to wait so long for another hour 
such as the one they had just spent. His hope has 
been fulfilled ! 

A Reporters' Evening. —For several weeks be- 
forehand the members are to search out from Chris- 
tian Endeavor papers interesting items regarding the 
work of other Christian Endeavor societies, helpful 
plans that may be incorporated into their own soci- 
ety, interesting items of denominational news. On 
the appointed evening there is to be a brief service on 
the regular topic, but the greater part of the evening is 
to be spent in listening to the different members as each 
brings one item that he has gleaned from this reading. 
The plan will probably set many to talking that have 
heretofore confined themselves to reading verses. 

An Object Meeting. — An object meeting is es- 
pecially valuable to the younger members and the 
associates. Every member is required to bring to 
the society some object, and to repeat some texts 
that the object illustrates, adding, if he is disposed, 
some comment of his own. 

Convention Echo Meetings. — Whenever even one 
or two of the members of your society have attended 



150 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

a Christian Endeavor gathering, whether it be a local 
union convention, a State convention, or one of the 
great International Conventions, be sure to utilize, 
in the next practicable meeting, the enthusiasm the 
delegates have brought back with them. If only 
one or two have visited the convention, set apart 
ten or fifteen minutes for a report, previously notify- 
ing them that such a report is expected. But where 
more have been present, an entire evening may profit- 
ably be spent in reviewing the impressions made by 
the Christian Endeavor gathering. 

The songs sung at the convention should be used. 
Extracts may be made from printed reports, but such 
extracts should be used very sparingly. The most 
helpful sayings should have been jotted down during 
the convention, to be reported at this echo meeting. 
Bits from the open parliaments and sunrise prayer 
meetings will be remembered. One of the most 
attractive parts of the echo meeting will be the re- 
view of the convention question-box, if the con- 
vention had such a feature, the questions being 
repeated, together with the answers given, so far 
as these can be remembered, and an opportunity 
being offered the Endeavorers to discuss these ques- 
tions. At the close, some practised speaker should 
sum up his impressions of the convention, with what- 
ever lessons it may have for the local society. 

The decorations of the society room should repeat 
the convention colors, and the convention badge 
should be displayed. In every way the speakers 
should seek to make the members that were so un- 



SPECIAL- MEETINGS. 151 

fortunate as to be obliged to remain at home, shar- 
ers with them in the pleasure and profit of the 
meetings they attended. 

A Badge Service. — To carry on this meeting, ask 
the members, one week beforehand, to come to the 
next meeting prepared to give an interpretation of 
the Christian Endeavor initials, " C. E.," and to 
comment upon the interpretation given. For ex- 
ample, some may think that " C. E." means "Chris- 
tian Every day," or " Christian Earnestness,'' or 
" Christ my Example." In the same way, the fuller 
initials, Y. P. S. C. E., may serve for the basis of a 
very helpful and interesting meeting. 

Promise Meetings. — It is rare indeed that -a 
year's Christian Endeavor topics do not contain at 
least one promise meeting. The most obvious mode 
of taking part in such a meeting is to repeat the 
promises of Scripture, each Endeavorer adding his 
personal comment, born of his own experience. It 
is helpful at such meetings for the leader to classify 
the promises, calling upon the members first, for 
example, to repeat Bible promises of strength, then 
of guidance, life, heaven, etc. 

The prayer-meeting committee should collect beau- 
tiful poems regarding Bible promises, and give them 
out to the Endeavorers in time for them to commit 
them to memory, to repeat at the meeting. A cer- 
tain section of the hour may be given to Christ's 
promises ; another to the promises made to the pa- 
triarchs, the promises recorded in the psalms, or in 
the writings of Paul. 



152 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

Many of these Bible promises have attaching to 
them interesting histories ; they have helped great 
men and women at critical points in their lives ; and 
these facts should form part of the substance of the 
promise meeting. 

An interesting feature of such a meeting would be 
written answers to the question, "What promise has 
helped you most at critical periods of your life ? " 
The members should be asked to write out answers 
to this question, and hand them in without signing 
their names, in order that their disclosure of soul 
experiences may be more frank. 

An interesting song service may easily be based 
upon the Scripture promises, and members may be 
asked to join in sentence prayers, setting before 
them the model, " Father, I thank thee that thou 
hast said — " or, " Help me to accept thy promise 
that—.' 1 

A Programme Meeting. — I do not believe that 
Christian Endeavor prayer meetings should uni- 
formly be run in accordance with a programme, but 
I do believe that an occasional programme meeting 
is a great help and stimulus. Some societies have a 
special programme committee for the purpose of pre- 
paring these occasional meetings, but I should think 
it better to assign that work to the prayer-meeting 
committee. 

The programme should, of course, have close ref- 
erence to the topic of the evening. Temperance 
and missionary meetings submit themselves most 
easily to this style of treatment, but any of the regu- 



SPECIAL MEETINGS. 



l b3 



lar topics may be used. Of course the consecra- 
tion meeting should never be a programme meeting. 
Appropriate recitations, solos, duets, and quartettes, 
instrumental music of various kinds, addresses by 
the pastor and church officers, as well as by repre- 
sentative Endeavorers, and possibly by delegates 
from outside societies, — these are features suitable 
for the programme. 

An Automatic Meeting. — This meeting is to 
have no leader. When the time for opening comes, 
some one will call for a hymn. On the conclusion 
of that, some one else, possibly, will call for another, 
or, better, start it with no announcement at all. 
There may be a call for sentence prayers, and, on 
the conclusion of these, an Endeavorer, without 
waiting for prompting, will speak briefly on the 
subject of the evening. Everything must be spon- 
taneous, for a successful evening. It is best that 
absolutely no assignments be made, though of course, 
if there should be a hitch, the prayer-meeting com- 
mittee will be ready to push things. 

Of course the plan of the meeting must be care- 
fully explained at the meeting of the week before. 
If your society is not in the habit of depending upon 
the leader for its inspiration, this plan will prove a 
delightful one for a change. If it is in the habit of 
depending on its leader too much, this plan is pre- 
cisely the thing for the society to try. 

When a society discovers how easy it is to have a 
good meeting without a leader, and how compara- 
tively unimportant is the office of leader when the 



154 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

society does its part well, younger members may be 
more willing to take up the work of leading the 
meeting ; and all the members will feel more their 
responsibility for doing their best to make a meeting 
a success, whether a good leader is in the chair or an 
inexperienced one. 

An Informal Prayer Meeting. — Sometimes the 
Christian Endeavor society can get itself out of the 
ruts by holding what is definitely known as an in- 
formal prayer meeting. Break up the ordinary ar- 
rangement of chairs by placing them in semicircles. 
The prayer-meeting committee may sit at a table 
in the midst of the congregation, and all of them 
should take part informally. Make the meeting, so far 
as possible, a conversation meeting, with many brief 
prayers, and with the impromptu starting of hymns. 

A Comment Meeting. — In order to win members 
from the verse-readers 1 class, hold an occasional 
comment meeting. By vote of the society on the 
preceding week, obtain the promise of all the mem- 
bers that they will bring to this meeting verses ot 
Scripture bearing upon the topic, each giving his 
own commentary on the same. These comments 
should be carefully prepared beforehand. 

A State Meeting. — This form of prayer meeting 
is valuable only for large societies, and may be used 
for a consecration meeting. Instead of calling the 
names of the members the secretary will call their 
native States, and as each State or country is men- 
tioned the members born there will rise and take 
part as the leader designates. A meeting of this 



SPECIAL MEETINGS. 155 

sort is almost certain to be characterized by the 
telling of personal experiences. 

An Evening for Beginners. — Select some even- 
ing with a topic on which much can be said by those 
that are inexperienced in prayer-meeting work, and 
make a special effort to bring out in new ways the 
ability of ail your members. If you can, take a rising 
vote at the preceding meeting and see how many are 
willing to undertake at the next meeting, just for 
once, whatever line of work the prayer-meeting com- 
mittee may set before them, — a word of prayer, or a 
brief testimony, — even though they have never at- 
tempted such a thing before. An earnest appeal for 
such a promise will scarcely fail to produce favorable 
results. 

Have a beginner lead the meeting, — or two be- 
ginners, for dual leadership will be best. Make it 
understood that this is a beginners' meeting, and 
require even the older members to participate in the 
meeting, if possible, in some manner they have never 
attempted before. 

A Rally Day. — Most societies feel the summer de- 
pression, either on account of the heat or on account 
of the absence of members on vacation ; and most 
societies need some sort of rallying in the fall. It is 
better to make this a conspicuous feature of the so- 
ciety, and to open up a fall campaign strongly, than 
to trust to slow and spasmodic recovery from the 
summer languor. Here is a rallying summons that 
may be sent out by the prayer-meeting committee to 
all the members of the society : 



156 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

Dear Friend: Summer is over, and the time for 
active, aggressive work is at hand. If we would gather 
in the rich harvest, each one must do his or her part. 
Every one can help and be helped by regular and prompt 
attendance at our meetings. 

Next Sunday evening, September 1, at 7.15 o'clock, 
will be held the Rally Service of our society. We expect 
to see you present. God has richly blessed us in the 
past. May the future bring from his hands a more abun- 
dant blessing, and to this end may we always 

Rejoice in the Lord, 
And put your whole trust in him, 
Let us praise him continually. 
Laboring together with God, 
You can do all things. 

Do good unto ail men, 
As you have opportunity. 
Yield yourselves to God. 

Search the Scriptures; 

Endure all things; 

Pray without ceasing; 

Talk ye of all His wondrous works. 

1, 1895- 

Please show your interest by being present. The sub- 
ject of the meeting will be, " Enthusiasm, and what it 
will accomplish." 

Sincerely yours in Christ, 

Prayer- Meeting Committee. 



SPECIAL MEETINGS. 157 

At the meeting for that night the leader should be 
one of the most experienced of the society workers, 
and the thought of the meeting should look espe- 
cially to the future, plans for the next year being pro- 
posed and discussed. Vacation experiences would, 
however, be also in order, and it would be profitable 
to devote a portion of the time of the evening to 
them. The main purpose, however, of the meeting 
is to give and get inspiration for the coming year's 
work. 

A Model Meeting. — Prayer-meeting committees 
have a duty they owe to committees of other socie- 
ties less favored, possibly, than they. I have heard 
of a society — one of the most fortunate in its State 
in regard to the number of earnest workers and the 
success with which their methods have been carried 
out — that decided to hold an ideal young people's 
prayer meeting, to which they invited delegates from 
the surrounding towns. The meeting-place was 
crowded, the meeting was spiritual and spirited, and 
those that were present thought it equal to a small 
convention. 

A Call Meeting. — If the members of your soci- 
ety are on the whole earnest workers in the prayer 
meeting, you may venture upon a meeting planned 
after the following fashion. For the opening exer- 
cises the leader will call upon some Endeavorer to 
take part in a prescribed fashion, - -praying, testify- 
ing, or reading a Bible verse. When this member 
has complied with the request, in his turn he has the 
privilege of calling upon some one else, and he upon 



158 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

a third, and so on, thus forming a chain of prayer- 
meeting participation that lasts through the evening. 

A Motto Meeting. — Each member is to bring to 
the meeting a motto. These mottoes may be writ- 
ten and read, but it will be better if they are com- 
mitted to memory. A word of comment should be 
added to each. To such meetings as these absent 
members should be asked to send contributions, as 
well as those present in town but not able to attend. 

A Week of Meetings. — For a revival of interest 
in committee work, some societies have held a week 
of meetings under the direction of their different 
committees. One evening was prayer-meeting com- 
mittee night ; on another evening the society dis- 
cussed their duties and responsibility with relation 
to the weekly prayer meeting ; others were social 
committee night, missionary committee night, look- 
out committee night. All of these aroused the 
society in the direction of definite lines of work. 

Besides, there might be a night for the associate 
members, a night for the Juniors, and so on. The 
exercises each evening will consist of one or more 
addresses, an open parliament, and much prayer. 
Why could not every society find inspiration in such 
a week of meetings ? 



THE TOPIC CARDS. 1 59 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE TOPIC CARDS. 

Use the Uniform Topics. — There are very few 
societies now, though there were a large number at 
the beginning of the movement, that do not ap- 
preciate the great advantage of using the Uniform 
Topics prepared by the United Society of Christian 
Endeavor. These are sent out after a careful exami- 
nation by a committee of representative pastors from 
the prominent evangelical denominations. They are 
chosen with careful regard to the precise needs of the 
Christian Endeavor societies. They have been used 
by millions of Endeavorers, and have been greatly 
blessed in the using. The societies that use them 
have open before them a very large number of com- 
mentaries, prepared by the wisest Christian scholars 
and most consecrated pastors. In visiting other 
societies one is sure what the topic will be ; and 
besides, there is a stimulus in the thought that all 
over the world the minds of the Endeavorers are 
turned to the same subject. 

The Special Meetings. — It is to be hoped that 
the Christian Endeavor societies will think twice 
before they omit from their topic cards any of the 
suggestions for special meetings made in the Uni- 
form Topic cards. In these topics, for example, one 



160 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

meeting in the year whose theme is most fitting is 
indicated as a question-box meeting, another as a 
memory meeting, and on other dates are such special 
meetings as : a meeting for the associate members ; 
one to be held in common with the Junior society ; a 
meeting led by the pastor, and to consider the rela- 
tions of the society and the church ; a topical song 
service ; a meeting for prayer alone ; a meeting to 
consider the work of each committee ; a patriotic 
service ; a meeting regarding the work of the Sunday 
school ; a Christian Endeavor Day meeting, and sim- 
ilar special meetings. All these are in addition to 
the four temperance and four missionary meetings, 
and the meetings on the regular holidays, Easter, 
Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's. 

It should be remembered that the Uniform Topics 
are chosen with the greatest care. The union meet- 
ing with the Juniors, for example, — something so 
admirable in every society that has a younger so- 
ciety connected with it, — is placed at the time of the 
year and in connection with the topic that is most 
appropriate ; and the society that wishes to get into 
its work as great a variety as possible will find that it 
can do this, usually, most easily and with least con- 
fusion by following strictly the order laid down in 
the Uniform Topics. 

None of our societies I have so far observed are in 
danger of undertaking too many new methods. If 
they are in any danger, it is peril of the ruts. These 
special meetings give an excellent opportunity to in- 
augurate fresh plans, and to gain fresh enthusiasm. 



THE TOPIC CARDS. l6l 

The Society History- — A pleasant addition to 
any topic card will be a condensed history of the 
society ; for instance, the date of its organization, 
the date of its adoption of important methods of 
work, the list of the past presidents of the society, 
and a summary of its prominent achievement's. 

Fans. — One wise society I have heard of printed 
the topics for the summer months upon two hundred 
fans that it distributed to the members. Thus at 
church and at home the topics were always kept 
before the eyes of the Endeavorers. This is a good 
plan for having a warm prayer meeting and keeping 
cool at the same time. 

A Cross. — I have seen a very pretty topic card, 
on one page of which was printed the Christian En- 
deavor pledge, the words being arranged in the form 
of a cross, and above it the sentence, " When thou 
vowest a vow unto the Lord, neglect not to pay it." 
By the way, all our societies should know that the 
United Society has facilities for printing all kinds of 
topic cards, in the handsomest way, and at the low- 
est prices. All the profits of this work go to spread 
still further the blessings of the Christian Endeavor 
Society. 

Their Duties. — I have heard of one society that 
prints on its topic card, under the names of the mem- 
bers that constitute each of its committees, a brief 
account of the most important work that committee 
is supposed to accomplish. The idea is an excellent 
one, as it keeps the duties of the various committees 
constantly before the eyes of the members. 



1 62 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

A Swarm of Bees. — Prayer-meeting committees 
will do well to add to their topic cards brisk and 
brief suggestions regarding the conduct of the meet- 
ings. Here is a set of prayer-meeting Be's that may 
be hived on your topic card : 

Be prompt. 

Be prayerful. 

Be sincere. 

Be reverent. 

Be friendly with strangers. 

Be helpful to friends. 

Be consistent everywhere. 

Be Christlike always. 

Another helpful set of suggestions is the following : 
Be early. 
Be joyous. 
Do not apologize. 
Do not try to be brilliant. 
Do not pray or speak for over two minutes. 
Do not be satisfied until souls are won to Christ. 
Put your whole soul into everything you do. 

Interlined Topic Cards. — Anything that will add 
to the usefulness and attractiveness of the topic card 
is a genuine aid in the society work. Sometimes, if 
the calendar for the year is printed upon the card, 
greater care will be taken of it, and it will be referred to 
more frequently. It is a good plan to print after each 
topic a very brief quotation appropriate to the subject. 

Topic Memoranda. — Have you tried the plan of 
binding up with your topic cards or your " daily 



THE TOPIC CARDS. 163 

readings" seven or- eight blank pages? You will 
thus convert your list of topics into a convenient 
book of memoranda, in which can be jotted down 
many helpful thoughts from the meetings. 

The Last Page. — On the last page of the topic 
card should be placed something of general interest, 
helpful in the conduct of the meetings, as, for exam- 
ple, the following : 

As an Active Member 

" Created in Christ Jesus unto good works ." Eph. 

2 : 10. 
I promise 

61 My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing 

that is gone out of my lips." Ps. 80 : 34. 
to be true to all my duties 

" Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command 

you." John ij : 14. 
to be present at 

" Then said the King . . . Be thou here present \" 

2 Sam. 20 : 4. 
and to take some part aside from singing 

" Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to 

another." Mai. j ; 16. 
in every meeting 

" Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, 

as the manner of some is" Heb. 10 : 25. 
unless hindered by some reason which I can conscien- 
tiously give to my Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. 

li Ye zvere also careful^ but ye lacked opportunity.^ 

Phil. 4 : 10. 



164 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

If obliged to be absent from the consecration meeting, I 
will, if possible, send an excuse for absence to the so- 
ciety. 

" We, brethren, being taken from you for a short 
tune, in presence, not in heart. " 1 Thess. 2: 17. 

Practical Points. — Here is a set of excellent sug- 
gestions that will be useful if incorporated in your 
topic card during some quarter : 

Leaders of the meeting are limited in time to seven 
minutes, and may occupy the platform and conduct the 
meeting, or may arise in their accustomed places and open 
the subjects as they desire. 

Under no circumstances must the meeting be more than 
an hour in length. 

The surest way to make the meeting cold and unsatis- 
factory in every way, will be for the membership to seek 
out the remote corners of the room and maintain a gloomy 
silence. 

Members and visitors are permitted to take part in the 
meeting in any way they see fit. " Where the spirit of 
the Lord is, there is liberty." 

" Get Together," should be the motto of every meet- 
ing. 

The singer who fails to sing is an abomination at the 
prayer meeting. 

" What thou doest, do quickly," is a good motto for 
every one who takes part. 

The Friday night meeting is not the "old folks' " meet- 
ing. 

Come prepared for speaking. So shall thy words be as 
apples of gold in baskets of silver. 



THE TOPIC CARDS. 



165 



Leave your favorite hobby at home, and fit yourself into 
the subject and meeting. 

Above all, come prayerfully. " Blessed are they that 
do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be 
filled." 

A Prayer-Meeting Thermometer. — Here are two 
good ideas for the backs of topic cards : 



@ 


& 


320 

160 

80 

40 






- 











TAKE YOUR TEMPERATURE. 

320 — Boiling. Enthusiastic, goes 
to meeting, gets others to 
go, works anywhere, in 
meeting or out of meeting. 

160 — Blood heat. Very much 
alive, goes to meeting, leads 
the meeting, prays, speaks. 

80 — Temperate. Alive, goes to 
meeting, takes part occa- 
sionally, usually found on a 
back seat. 

40 — Freezing. Dying, goes to 
meeting occasionally, never 
takes part. 

o — Zero. Dead, never goes to 
meeting. 

What is your temperature? 

Read Rev. 3 : 15, 16. 



l66 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

OUR PLEDGE. 

Trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ for strength, 

\ a J I promise him that I will strive to do whatever 

To he would like to have me do; that I will make 

Christ it the rule of my life to pray and read the 

Bible every day, 

and to support my own church in every way, 

especially by attending all her regular Sunday 

(*) and midweek services, unless prevented by 

To the some reason which I can conscientiously give 

Church to my Saviour, and that, just so far as I know 

how, throughout my whole life, I will endeavor 

to lead a Christian life. 

As an active member, I promise to be true to 

all my duties, to be present at and take some 

part, aside from singing, in every Christian 

(0 Endeavor prayer meeting, unless hindered by 

To the some reason which I can conscientiously give 

Society to my Lord and Master. If obliged to be 

absent from the monthly consecration meeting 

of the society, I will, if possible, send at least 

a verse of Scripture to be read in response to 

my name at the roll-call. 

Church Topics Also. — The Christian Endeav- 
orers should make unselfish use of their topic card 
by announcing thereon, in addition to their meet- 
ings, those of the church, — the time and place, to- 
gether with a hearty invitation to all young people to 
join in them. 



SOME CLOSING SUGGESTIONS. 1 67 



CHAPTER XIV. 

SOME CLOSING SUGGESTIONS. 

To be a good prayer-meeting follower is as good 
as to be a good prayer-meeting leader. The best 
Endeavorer is both. _______ 

Do you know your Bible ? Yes ? Good ! Now, 
then, do you know your hymn-book? 



Prayer-meeting helps on the topic become prayer- 
meeting hindrances as soon as they cease to be sug- 
gestions and become " selections." A crutch is 
good for a cripple, but for a well man it's only a 
cause of stumbling. These helps should not be used 
as crutches, but as guide-posts. 



Are you satisfied if only part of your meetings are 
good? Do you take it as a matter of course that a 
dull meeting should come now and then? Do you 
really believe that the Holy Spirit is changeable and 
fickle, and not able to give you glorious meetings all 
the time? 

If you know how to follow a meeting, you'll have 
no trouble in leading it. 



1 68 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

You may pass a hymn-book with an air that makes 
it an act of discourtesy, or you may convert the little 
kindness into a genuine invitation to Christ. 



" Don't let precious moments pass unimproved," 
says an Endeavor paper. " As soon as the meeting 
commences to drag, close at once." Wouldn't it be 
better to inject a little life into it? You don't shoot 
a horse as soon as it begins to stumble. 



A good topic card packed with information about 
the society will be almost as good as an added 
committee. 

What the prayer meeting does for you is a good 
measure of what you are doing for it. 



" A good prayer meeting is one led by anybody, 
partaken of by everybody, monopolized by nobody, 
and where everybody is somebody." 



44 Ambrose never heard of a Christian Endeavor 
meeting, but his counsel is pertinent, — ' If we must 
give account of every " idle word," take care, also, 
lest you have to answer for an idle silence.' " 



" The one thing to make taking part easy is to 
study from Monday to Saturday." 



SOME CLOSING SUGGESTIONS. 169 

Endeavorer, when any one asks you what was 
your best prayer meeting, say, " My next." 



If you can't pray short prayers, why, don't pray at 
all. These men who make long prayers are gener- 
ally the ones that pray least at home. They are 
generally prayerless prayers, and they take the spirit 
right out of the meeting. — D. L. Moody. 



" Be thoroughly prepared for the prayer meeting. 
Be brief. If prepared, you will be brief." 

How to pray. A clergyman of Manchester, Eng- 
land, says that the Christian Endeavor solution of 
that problem is, if you want to learn to pray, pray, 
pray, 

A Christian Endeavor topic card contains on the 
back this suggestive quotation : " Don't look around 
every time some one comes in. Study to be quiet. 
1 Thess. 4: n." . 

An Australian Endeavorer gives two excellent rea- 
sons for the prompt closing of Christian Endeavor 
meetings. " In the first place, because we promise 
in our pledge to be true to all our duties, and it some- 
times happens that the home circle is deprived of its 
rights, and other important duties are neglected, by 
prolonged meetings. In the second place, some of 
the Endeavorers live at a distance, and it is neither 
kind nor wise to detain them." 



170 PRAYER-METING METHODS. 

Here is some good advice from Canada. It is 
pointed at all who have to speak at Christian En- 
deavor meetings. " Don't talk long, but speak 
clearly. Don't aim to tickle, but lead, impress. 
Don^t be afraid to stand up." 



A certain Methodist Episcopal Endeavor society 
has this fivefold motto : " Prayer, Preparation, Punc- 
tuality, Participation, and Progress." 



A writer tells about a Christian Endeavor society, 
advertised to begin at 6.30, in whose room he waited, 
as the members sauntered in, until, at 6.56, the leader 
opened the meeting. And what hymn do you think 
was announced? u Come to the Saviour, make no 
delay ! " 

A well-known Congregational minister of Australia 
became discouraged about his society, and one night 
he said, " Now we are going to pray, and God wants 
every active member to pray." They knelt down, 
and fifteen prayed right away, whose voices had 
never been heard before. That was the Pentecost 
of that society. 

"The best way to get Christ to come to your 
prayer meetings, is to bring him with you.'" 



" BREVITY ! " This single word in large letters, 
visible from the very back seat, is emblazoned on a 



SOME CLOSING SUGGESTIONS. 171 

card that is posted in the meeting-room of a certain 
Presbyterian Christian Endeavor society. Duplicates 
might well be furnished to every society in the world. 



A sensible Endeavorer urges that a well-known 
clause in the Christian Endeavor pledge be thus 
amended, — "To take some part in every meeting, 
and to take that part distinctly '." 



The next time you hear the excuse, " I'm really 
too timid to speak in prayer meeting. If I only had 

the confidence of that Miss B ! " just ask the 

speaker if what she wishes for is- not Miss B 7 s 

eloquence and wisdom, and if her timidity would not 
disappear promptly if she felt that she could make a 
good show before men. 



Translate pans a by the first personal pronoun. 
This is not Latin, but leadership. 



" A new type of addresses is suggested, viz., one- 
legged addresses. It is said that Africans, when they 
"palaver," make one-legged speeches, i. e., talk as 
long as they can stand on one leg. Not a bad 

Try it." 



Here is a very suggestive reply given in a Minne- 
sota convention to the question how to make prayer 
meetings interesting : " We try to find out in every 



172 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

meeting how the topic can help us in our every-day 
work and play." 

Study variety in the service, — rather than have 
two meetings just alike, face the chairs the other 
way. — Rev. F. E. Clark. 



Remember Plato's saying, " Good things are hard." 
Has a particular line of Christian work become easy 
for you? Then go on to something harder; not be- 
cause it is harder ; but because, for you and your 
little world, it is better. 



As Christian soldiers, the prayer meeting should be 
to you the recruiting and supply station, the ammuni- 
tion wagon with which to wage successfully a week's 
warfare against the world and the devil. Never make 
the fatal mistake of considering the prayer meeting a 
battle-ground. — William T. Ellis. 



a A prayer meeting should never be conducted. It 
is not a machine to be run with belts and pulleys and 
cranks. Let it be voluntary, spontaneous. 1 ' 



The story is told of Mr. Spurgeon that one day a 
member of his congregation, who was in the habit of 
making long prayers, wore out the great preacher's 
patience with his endless petitions. Mr. Spurgeon 
quietly went up to him and said, " Brother, you've 
prayed long enough ; and if you feel offended at my 



SOME CLOSING SUGGESTIONS. 1 73 

saying so, you will be a goose." That is the best 
way to deal with such people. 



The leader has planned long for this meeting. He 
has prayed hard over it. He has selected every hymn 
with care. He has studied the best way to read the 
Bible verses, and he has chosen every word he shall 
say with nice regard to its possible effect. Right in 
the midst of this most thoughtfully prepared begin- 
ning, the door opens, and some one comes rustling 
in, walks with creaking boots up the long aisle, and 
takes his seat with a roguish grin, looking at his 
watch. All heads turn, and all hearts are turned 
from the topic. The opening is spoiled. Is this 
newcomer yon f _____ 

"Prompt payment is sure payment. Delay is the 
fruitful source of failure. The Christian Endeavorer 
who waits for a more convenient moment to take 
part in the meeting usually fails to find it. The 
surest cure for hesitation is to take the first chance. 
Putting off a duty is putting away power to perform 
it." 

Because Paul said " This one thing I do," many 
Christians think themselves wise in sticking to one 
mode of Christian work. A verse read at prayer 
meeting, a hymn started, a tract a week, — some 
such "one thing" contents them. Paul's "one 
thing " was as complex as the Columbian Exposi- 
tion. It included oratory, quiet conversation, prayer, 



174 PRAYER-MEETING METHODS. 

song, letter-writing, debate, voyages, organization, 
chains, mockings, rebukes, praises, — why, what did 
it not include? That is not a safe text for lazy folks 
to quote ! 

If the appointed leader be kept from coming, and 
you are asked to lead, and refuse, though you know 
yourself more capable without preparation than the 
prepared leader, — what honest name will you give 
that refusal? - 

You find it hard work to speak or pray in public? 
Show me a Christian who has always found it easy, 
and I will show you a man who deserves no credit 
for his speaking and praying in public, as he himself 
would be the first humbly to acknowledge. In war, 
that officer wins promotion who captures an obsti- 
nate garrison, not the officer who raises his flag over 
a deserted fort. 

Four things constitute a good prayer-meeting 
leader: prayerfulness, patience, promptness, and 
point. 

And now may the one aim and result of all our 
Christian Endeavor prayer meetings be the glory of 
God in the salvation of human souls ! Amen. 



THE END. 



IMPORTANT 
Christian Endeavor Publications. 



Our Unions. A manual of methods for Local, County, District, and 
State Christian Endeavor Unions. By Amos R. Wells. Cloth, 
128 pages. Price, 35 cents. 

Social to Save. A Book of Suggestions for the Social Committees 
of Christian Endeavor Societies and for the Home Circle. By 
Amos R. Wells. Cloth. Price, 35 cents. 

Prayer Meeting Methods. How to Prepare for and Conduct Chris- 
tian Endeavor Prayer Meetings and Similar Gatherings. By Amos 
R. Wells. Cloth. Price, 50 cents. 

The Junior Manual. By Amos R. Wells. This is the only full 
and complete manual for Junior workers ever published. It con- 
tains many times more matter than any other help for Junior 
superintendents ever written. It is practical. All its plans have 
been tried and proved. Hundreds of Junior superintendents 
from all parts of the world have contributed to it their brightest 
methods. Price, board covers, 75 cents; cloth, $1.25 postpaid. 
Remit with order. 

Attractive Truths in Lesson and Story. By Mrs. A. M. Scudder. 
Introduction by Rev. F. E. Clark, President Y. P. S, C. E. 
i2mo, cloth, $1.25. A series of outline lessons, with illustrative 
stories, for Junior Christian Endeavor Societies, Children's 
Meetings, and Home Teaching. 

Little Children in the Church of Christ. By Rev. Charles 
Roads. Cloth, $1.00. This book is made up of little talks to 
the children on important topics. At the head of each talk is 
a little blackboard sketch, which will prove very helpful to the 
leader. It is full of hints and helps for Junior superintendents 
and primary workers. 

Pictured Truth. A Handbook of Blackboard and Object Teaching. 
By Rev. R. F. Y. Pierce. Cloth, $1.25. Every Junior worker 
should have this book. The illustrations are very fine, and the 
suggestions are simply invaluable. 

PUBLISHING DEPARTMENT 
UNITED SOCIETY OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR 

Boston, 646 Washington St. Chicago, 155 LaSalle St. 



BOOKS. 

Social Evenings. A book for social committees, and for all who 

appreciate pleasant and helpful amusements. By Amos R. 
Wells, Managing Editor of The Golden Rule. This is a pretty- 
book of about 150 pages, handsomely bound in cloth. It contains 
full descriptions of a very large number of socials, games, and 
delighiful features for evenings' entertainments at home or in 
public gatherings. Everything in the book is adapted to large 
parties, for whose needs it is most difficult to provide. The book 
is preceded by numerous general suggestions regarding the con- 
duct of such entertainments. This is just the book your social 
committee needs. It contains enough ideas to furnish socials for 
years. Everything in the book is practical, and has been tried 
and proved. 78 games ! 82 complete socials! About 150 pages! 
190 separate articles ! And the cost ? Only 35 cents a copy. 

Fuel for Missionary Fires. By Belle M. Brain. " Where no 
wood is, there the fire goeth out" A beautiful book, packed full 
- of practical plans for missionary committees. Everything tried 
and proved. It will make your missionary meetings the brightest 
you ever held. . It will rouse your society to a burning interest in 
this greatest of all great endeavors, — the world for Christ ! Only 
50 cents. 

Ways and Means. By Rev. F. E. Clark, D.D. i2mo, $1.25. A 
history of the Christian Endeavor movement from its beginning 
to the present time; with valuable suggestions for the prayer 
meeting, the committees, and all lines of work adopted by Chris- 
tian Endeavor Societies. 

The Mossback Correspondence. By Rev. F. E. Clark, D.D. 
i2mo, $1.00. Plain, pointed, and graphic thrusts at the faults and 
follies of the day. — Christian Intelligencer. 

Rays of Light on Our Daily Path. By William Merkle. With 
introduction by Bishop John H. Vincent. Vest-pocket size. 
Bound in flexible cloth, 25 cents. A choice selection of Scripture 
readings for every day in the year, with a memory verse empha- 
sizing some great truth as revealed in the Bible. Just the thing 
for family devotions. 

Business. A Plain Talk with Men and Women Who Work. By 
Amos R. Wells. 35 cents. An exceedingly attractive and help- 
ful little book. Whatever your work may be, you will find that 
the book contains a message for you. Read it ! 



PUBLISHING DEPARTMENT 
UNITED SOCIETY OE CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR 

Boston, 646 Washington St. Chicago, 155 La Salle St. 



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